Ambitiously green design for new boutique hotel in Redondo Beach’s King Harbor
The Shade Hotel, Redondo Beach. Design by Michael Hricak Architects. Rendering: Brett Ribeneck
Mike Zislis has unveiled an ambitiously green design for the new boutique Shade Hotel he intends to build in Redondo Beach’s King Harbor.
The local entrepreneur, whose restaurants and Shade hotel have been a key part of Manhattan Beach’s flourishing downtown, will submit a design proposal for a 39,000 sq. ft., 45-room “eco-hotel” to the city this Thursday. The design utilizes recycled materials, solar power, and cutting-edge fuel cell technology while featuring indoor-outdoor hotel rooms with retractable glass doors that open to balconies, a large public piazza, and a 15-foot wide seaside promenade.
Zislis believes the new Shade will be one of the most environmentally-friendly hotels in the world. He is hoping to obtain the highest “green” certification possible, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum rating.
“It’s going to be a very green design,” Zislis said. “I think only three hotels in the world are LEED platinum – that is something I am trying for.”
Designer Larry Drasin of Beverly Hills-based Drasin Designs said he expects the hotel to become a focal point for the harbor area.
“Not many people get a chance to really experience the lifestyle on the waterfront, and so it’s going to create a nice environment for people from out of town and locals who want to experience life along the ocean in a beautiful community,” Drasin said. “What is really attractive about the location is the interaction with the environment and the boats and just getting you separated from cars and getting fresh air. I think people really like the idea of spending time with family and friends, and this will be a great gathering place, a social place.”
The hotel is already three years in the making. In 2008, Zislis was chosen from nearly 20 bidders – most of whom were national or international hotel chains – to build a hotel on the Harbor Drive site that formerly was home to the Red Onion and more recently Venezia restaurant. In 2009, Zislis and the city agreed on lease terms, which would provide the city an estimated annual rent of at least $230,000, hotel “bed” tax revenue of $300,000 annually, and sales tax of $25,000 annually.
The project was expected to be constructed within 42 months of the lease agreement, but was suspended while the city fought a legal and electoral battle over lingering harbor zoning issues with the “slow growth” group Building a Better Redondo. Zislis, who signed with the understanding he’d build conforming to the zoning the city had passed in 2008, actively supported Measure G, a ballot measure whose passage last November finally resolved nearly a decade of harbor area zoning conflicts.
Zislis still hopes to finish construction by November 2012. He said he doesn’t expect his design to face significant opposition as it works its way through the city planning process. He noted that Councilman Bill Brand, a BBR supporter, has expressed support for the project.
“I don’t think I’ll really have a problem,” Zislis said. “Measure G was the real problem, and it passed. Even Councilmember Brand is pro-Shade, and the anti-growth people are pro-Shade. They are not against development but against over-development, and I think Shade fits the model of the small, locally owned boutique hotel that they were looking for.”
Shade Hotel served as an anchor for the redevelopment of the Metlox plaza in Manhattan Beach, and Zislis believes the Redondo Shade will likewise provide a spark to the struggling harbor area, which has not seen a significant new project in over a decade.
“I’d like to turn that around,” Zislis said. “Think about Metlox, think about Shade there – it served as a catalyst for the rebirth of Metlox, and really I think Shade can serve as the catalyst for the rebirth of the harbor area. Not one person who reads this newspaper doesn’t believe we need a rebirth of the harbor area – I want to be the guy that spurs it on, who gets it going.”
“Let’s face it – Redondo Beach is the last jewel of the South Bay, and it’s just a little under-polished,” Zislis added. “I need to polish it up and make it part of my Zislis Group crown. Beach front property is a very rare thing.”
The Shade Hotel in King Harbor will include a public plaza and a 15 ft. promenade. Design by Michael Hricak Architects. Rendering: Brett Ribeneck
The Redondo Shade, in addition to its waterfront location, will feature significant differences from its Manhattan Beach counterpart. Drasin noted that the Zislis Group took over that project after another developer walked away and thus inherited a footprint. The Redondo Shade hotel will more clearly separate the Zinc Lounge, restaurant, ballroom, and event center from guest rooms. One building, directly on the waterfront, will house guests, while another, separated by a nearly 4,000 sq. ft. courtyard, will house the social facilities. The space between the two three-story buildings will also help preserve a view corridor, Zislis said.
The Redondo Shade will be better designed for families, with a third of its units comprised of two room family suites. “One of the things I didn’t do at the Shade in Manhattan Beach is really provide family rooms,” Zislis said. “That was probably one of the mistakes.”
Architect Michael Hricak, principal of Venice-based Michael Hricak Architects, said that great care was taken in the design so that every single room has a view of the harbor.
“That was a key part of the design,” Hricak said. “We want people to come to Redondo Beach and experience the harbor and water and breeze and the smells and everything else, so that was no small part of the design that took shape.”
The rooms all feature 12 ft. windows that retract to open to 100 sq. ft. balconies, which will include some kind of a water-soak feature, possibly Jacuzzis, as well as smaller windows high on the other side of the room that open to provide ventilation and generous light. Solar hot water panels will both provide radiant floor heat and hopefully enough hot water to offset the entire hotel’s usage. Photovoltaic panels are intended to provide the hotel’s electrical lighting, while state-of-the-art “Bloom Energy” fuel cells and possibly even wind turbines will be used to provide more electricity.
Other green features include recycling the existing building and reusing its materials – a “deconstruction” rather than a demolition – as well as the use of pervious concrete to prevent ocean runoff and an in-house system that will compost all food waste. All cleaning materials will be biodegradable and only 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper products will be used at the hotel.
“Mike Zislis has allowed us to design it as green as we could possibly make it, within reason,” Hricak said. “It’s definitely thrilling, and right up there with the green aspect is that public plaza that we designed, which is obviously an amenity for the hotel, but we see as kind of an outside mall for the city. It’s a great place to meet people – ‘I’ll meet you at the plaza at Shade’ – with benches, tables, and bike racks. We are trying to make not only a space but a place.”
“In the public piazza, people can sit and read, grab free WiFi, and really take in the harbor,” Zislis said. “There’s really no great place to hang out in the harbor, you know?”
The design also goes beyond the 10 ft. ocean promenade required by zoning.
“I’ve stepped back my hotel 15 feet from the waterfront to allow for a public promenade to go by,” Zislis said. “We only had to go 10 feet but really wanted to encourage the promenade to be bigger and grander because I think it’s better for the actual revitalizing of the harbor area to have that beautiful promenade in front. We want to see a lot of people roller skating and their strollers walking by. They asked for 10 ft. and said I am going push that back a little further and hopefully we can get everybody to have this big and grand promenade…It’s going to be incredible, because right now it’s just an afterthought. I want to make it a forethought.”
“Since I am the first guy redeveloping down there, I wanted to do it all in my project,” Zislis said. ER