An 11th-hour attempt to return a restaurant to the El Santiago Club building has emerged.
The idea was raised at this morning’s Amenity Authority Committee meeting.
However, the reception to the idea was mixed.
AAC member Rich Lambrecht brokered a meeting late Tuesday afternoon between the unnamed potential restaurant developer and district staff.
He characterized the meeting with the “husband and wife business team” as positive.
“I couldn’t stop smiling because no matter what programming options we’ve discussed for that building, residents have always said, ‘Let’s have a restaurant in there,'” Lambrecht said.
The possibilities discussed included operation of a concession area, purchase of the building by the interested party, remodeling and retrofitting of the building by the party, and/or district renovation of the building and turning it over to the new restaurant operator.
The El Santiago Club building, now gutted, has been vacant for more than two years. The AAC bought the building from the developer for $350,000 last year.
More than 850 residents have signed a petition indicating they want a restaurant back in the El Santiago Club building.
But not all AAC members are enthusiastic about the idea.
“We’ve got to put this to rest,” said AAC Chairman John Wilcox.
He noted that there have been numerous meetings on the matter and the AAC had previously acknowledged that as a government entity they had no business running a restaurant.
Ultimately, the AAC voted 3-2 to direct District Manager Janet Tutt to put out a request for proposal on the matter. She noted it will take two months to come back to the AAC with the RFP.
“I express my strong disagreement with this as there are no internal restaurants that are successful,” AAC member Carl Bell said. “The restaurants that are successful are on main drags.”
Bell and Wilcox cast the dissenting votes.
Lambrect, Ann Forrester and Jo Weber voted in favor of going ahead with the idea.
“I voted yes because I want to have the opportunity to talk about it. But I won’t put one penny of our money into a retrofit,” Forrester said in clarifying her vote.
Village of Santiago resident Pam Copp predicted that if AAC members hadn’t agreed to explore the possibility of restoring the restaurant there would have been “hell to pay.”
