The Fairmont Miramar project was approved in the early hours of this morning by a 4-2 vote of the Santa Monica City Council. In the works for nearly a decade, the project will revitalize the century-old property into a new 500,000-square-foot mixed-use project.
Despite providing 42 units of affordable housing, Councilmembers Kevin McKeown and Sue Himmelrich voted against the project with their primary objection being the project’s inclusion of 60 luxury condominiums.
Plans to renovate the century-old hotel include the addition of new guest rooms, 60 for-sale luxury condominium units, expanded retail space, and 14,000 square-feet of publicly-accessible open space. The project also intends to provide funding and land that can be used to build a minimum of 42 affordable housing units, which will be located in a five-story apartment building across 2nd Street that would be developed by Community Corporation, the City’s affordable housing provider.
Some of the project’s components have changed in the years since designs were first floated by commissioners and councilmembers in 2012 as a result of dozens of community meetings that were held throughout the process. Criticism of the project has focused on the condos, the proposed traffic circulation patterns and the fact the 130-foot tall building could block some longtime residents’ view of the ocean.
Gleam Davis recused herself prior to the evening’s discussion. She had been criticized for a conflict of interest as her husband works for Dell Technologies, whose Chairman & CEO Michael Dell owns the Miramar via his family’s private investment firm MSD Capital.