City tables St. George Street hotel

City tables St. George Street hotel
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 12:21 am by Shaun Ryan

By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com

St. Augustine City Commissioners on Monday tabled an application to build a 16-room hotel and seven retail shops at Cathedral Place and St. George Street because they couldn’t decide if the building’s turn-of-the-century architectural style was appropriate in a city marked by many Spanish Colonial Period structures.
St. Augustine attorney George McClure, speaking for developers Danny and Kaspit Schechter of Jacksonville, said the proposed building was designed to duplicate the original Bishop’s Building, constructed on that site in 1897 and demolished in the early 1960s.
“We’ll make an effort to ensure that the building does not look new,” McClure said. “We’ll use distressed brick, which has the appearance of age. Here we have the opportunity not to imitate history but to restore it.”
The 11,000 square foot building at 180 St. George St. would cover half the Bank of America parking lot. The Cathedral Place side would feature the hotel entrance and one retail door, with the St. George St. side having seven retail doors.
Its second story would contain 15 or 16 hotel rooms, each with its own cast iron balcony.
However, every speaker at the public hearing opposed the project.
Charles Pellicer, son of the late X.L. Pellicer Sr., said his father was a historian and would have opposed this application.
“If I had to pick a center of town, this corner would be it,” he said, adding that Palatka, Gainesville and Tallahassee all had many buildings in the turn-of-the-century style. “If you’re ever going to hold the line on the (historic) districts, this is the time.”
St. Augustine architect Jerry Dixon said this application isn’t just for one building.
“It could set the precedent for a whole lot more. You open up a can of worms when you go there,” he said. “Everyone’s got that style of architecture. We’re the only ones with Colonial Spanish. It’s very important that we stick with the original concept.”
Mayor Joe Boles said, “I want a Second Spanish Colonial city.”
But he recognized that city codes allow a property owner to pick any architectural style that is within view. And most of St. George Street is in the turn-of-the-century style.
Vice Mayor Errol Jones said, “I don’t want (the city) to be a Palatka.”
Seeing the four-member commission — Don Crichlow, an architect, designed the new building and recused himself — in a quandary, McClure requested the item be tabled until a review by the Historic Architectural Review Board for historical appropriateness. That was passed 4-0.
HARB tabled a request for a certificate of appropriateness on April 16 because of some design issues, according to Mark Knight, director of city planning and building.
Commissioner Leanna Freeman posed the crucial question, saying, “Is there some value to replicating what was there? Or do we want colonial?”