Major Renovation Planned : Pickwick Hotel Bought for $6.8 Million

In a move that could spruce up a key block in downtown San Diego, a partnership has purchased the 60-year-old Pickwick Hotel on Broadway for $6.8 million and announced plans to renovate the seven-story structure.

Pickwick Partners bought the 49,000-square-foot block that includes the hotel from Greyhound Bus Lines, which operates its downtown depot on the ground floor of the 250-room Pickwick.

Ken Winslow, a real estate broker and partner in the deal, said the group plans to restore the hotel to its original Gothic style and attempt to attract tourists and business travelers drawn to San Diego by the planned downtown convention center.

“It’s a landmark,” said Winslow, who purchased the block along with real estate broker and investor Harki Parekh. “The location is superb, and we feel it has every opportunity of being a smaller, San Francisco-type hotel.”

Sale of the hotel marks another step for the revitalization for the lower Broadway section of downtown, for years a run-down area peppered with adult bookstores and bars. Current plans call for office towers and a hotel in the proposed $200-million Koll Center and the $115-million Emerald-Shapery Center.

“We’re quite excited about that area of town,” Winslow said. “It used to be the dregs, but now it’s coming to the forefront.”

Although the site--bounded by Broadway, C Street, 1st Avenue and Front Street--is outside the redevelopment area, officials with the Centre City Development Corp. praised the renovation plans.

“I think it’s great,” said Gerald Trimble, CCDC executive vice president. “We have an awful lot of office sites. This will keep more people in the downtown area after 5 p.m.”

As part of the deal, which was completed Tuesday after four months of negotiations, Greyhound will continue to operate in the hotel for three years with a five-year option, Winslow said. He said he does not expect restoration work to begin for several years.

“It will probably just stay the way it is for the next couple of years until we see what develops,” Winslow said, noting that land next to the Pickwick could be used for a parking structure or high-rise to accommodate offices or additional hotel space.

Aside from the bus terminal, the hotel currently houses about 80 long-term residents and several small businesses. The deal does not include a small parcel and structure that houses a Chinese restaurant.

Winslow said the hotel, built in 1926 but modernized twice since then, will be restored to its original Gothic style, which featured terra cotta and brick on the exterior as well as marble floors and mahogany fixtures. Renovation may also include enlarging several rooms into suites, he said.

“We haven’t put many numbers to it, but we expect renovation to be a multimillion-dollar venture,” Winslow said. “This hotel is of historic importance.”

The partnership’s plans call for aiming at the mid-range, $55-to-$65-per-night market, he said. The partnership is searching for a hotel chain to run the Pickwick, Winslow said, noting that “we’re not operators.”