Long Beach zoning board OKs Allegria Hotel renovations

The Zoning Board of Appeals granted the Allegria Hotel an off-street parking variance last month as the hotel moves forward with converting existing floor space into 13 additional hotel rooms.

But the board set a number of conditions following concerns from some nearby residents about parking and quality-of-life issues.

In January, SFIV LBH LLC — the owner of the posh 143-room, 124,000-square-foot oceanfront hotel, at 80 W. Broadway, which opened in 2009 — appeared before the board to request an off-street parking variance to convert a third-floor meeting room and an eighth-floor office and fitness room into additional rooms.

The hotel, which offers valet parking, has 80 parking spaces in its garage, but city code requires it to have a total of 105 off-street parking spots. 

An attorney for the hotel, Peter Rubin, said that the additions were necessary to accommodate year-round business with airline customers and staff, explaining that the hotel needs to utilize 60 percent of its rooms to fulfill long-term contracts with four international airlines, part of a new, long-term business model to make the hotel profitable year-round.

Former City Councilwoman Mona Goodman and former zoning board Trustee Tracey Eichler, who both live near the hotel, said that the new owners of the Allegria — in 2016, the hotel was sold at a bankruptcy auction for $27.4 million — have not been good neighbors. They urged the board in January to deny the variance, saying that parking and quality-of-life issues such as traffic, idling vehicles and noise persist. They also said that the hotel’s garage was being used for storage and debris during renovations, which exacerbated parking issues in the neighborhood.

Rubin said that the new management regularly works with the Long Beach Police Department to identify areas where vehicles can be parked, including the Superblock.

The board set conditions requiring the hotel to obtain the necessary building permits and begin construction within nine months; post clearly marked valet signs; clean out the parking garage within 60 days and make it available to guests at all times; and seek a nearby off-site lot for valet parking on a year-round basis.

Additionally, the board required the hotel to use its garage for valet parking only during non-peak times between Oct. 1 and April 30 to ensure adequate parking for guests, and prohibited valet operators from parking vehicles within marked on-street parking spaces.

Other conditions include a requirement that the valet service park vehicles in a designated off-site parking lot during peak times, while hotel employees must now park in an off-site lot or on the street “at least three blocks away” from the hotel between May 1 and Sept. 30.

The board did allow the hotel to utilize on-street parking for a vehicle used to retrieve valet vehicles to eliminate the need to stage along West Broadway, but stage on the National Boulevard side of the hotel if an on-street spot is unavailable.

“In the event that these conditions are not complied with, this variance shall be deemed revoked unless an extension has been granted by the board,” the board said in its decision.