Placer County pulls out of A & A Lake Tahoe Inn deal

Placer County has made two attempts to buy lodging properties in South Lake Tahoe to give them needed tourist accommodation units (TAUs) for future redevelopment projects in the North Lake Tahoe town centers of Kings Beach and Tahoe City.

The county had offered the owners of the A & A motel $1.425 million for their property at 3520 Lake Tahoe Blvd. After demolishing the motel, the county would have restored the land beneath, earning a bonus ratio of three-to-one TAUs from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, so the motel's 34 units would have been worth 102 to Placer County.

Placer County has now pulled out of the deal after the property owners declined the county’s request to extend the pre-purchase contingency period.

“The A&A deal was going to be an important part of our broader efforts to reinvigorate North Shore downtowns, and we’re disappointed that it’s not going to work out,” said Jennifer Merchant, Placer County deputy county executive officer for Lake Tahoe. “We’ll continue looking for more opportunities like this and are still fully committed to moving forward with incentivizing investment in the region.”

South Tahoe Now announced in February that the county's board of supervisors had voted to approve the purchase, pending a 180-day contingency period for the county to secure necessary approvals. With approvals by partner agencies still pending, the county requested to extend the investigation period until April 2016.

The property owners, WBW Property Holdings Corp., responded with an extension only through early January, which would not have provided the time necessary to navigate multiple outstanding due diligence items.

“Deals like this take time, and we can appreciate that the owners need to move more quickly,” Merchant said. “TRPA’s TAU bonus unit process is new, so we’ve learned a tremendous amount and expect that our experience will result in regional process streamlining that will lead to efficiencies we can benefit from next time.”

Placer County had previously pulled out of a deal to purchase the Howard Johnson Inn across the street from A & A. The City of South Lake Tahoe had objected to the deal since the Howard Johnson property still provides a viable and contributing sales and room tax revenue to the city.