CULTURE & REVENUE
St. HELENA
Healdsburg Plaza fits inside both parcels.
Building blocks road noise from entering the park.
Grand views from the rooftop bar and cafe.
The Initiative
St. Helena deserves a thriving downtown, well-maintained infrastructure, and a strong city treasury. The Lyman Park Initiative provides a pathway to achieve all three.
At its heart, this community-driven plan envisions a unified Lyman Park Plaza, joining the old City Hall property with Lyman Park to create a flourishing civic hub—a gathering place much like the beloved town squares of Sonoma or Healdsburg. This vision honors the spirit of our historic park while expanding its role as a centerpiece of downtown life.
Anchoring the Plaza would be a modern St. Helena Cultural Center—potentially including a next-generation tech and learning center, music and art spaces, a rooftop lounge, and welcoming gathering areas throughout the park for wellness and enrichment programs, special exhibitions, and more. This would transform Lyman Park into a true community centerpiece—one that brings lasting value for generations to come.
To realize this vision, the City Hall property must remain city-owned and not be sold or developed. A proposed three-story, mid-luxury hotel on that site would diminish the park’s open beauty, compete with existing hotels, and generate minimal financial benefit.
The Adams Street property, however, presents a far better solution. St. Helena faces a multi-million dollar annual deficit and significant underfunding in essential services—water, sewer, sidewalks, and roads. A thoughtfully planned upscale destination resort on Adams could generate more than $125 million in revenue over 20 years, strengthening our city finances, funding modern infrastructure, and making the Lyman Park Plaza a reality.
🌿 Please support this vision—one that both secures our financial future and creates a welcoming center for generations to come.
2. REVENUE
"The budget for the next two years, like the last decade or more, is being kept artificially low by not properly funding various aspects of city operational needs.
When other factors are considered, the projected annual deficit balloons to somewhere between $6 million and $10 million depending upon the items included.
The charts below outline the estimated costs associated with unfunded needs, including additional staffing, market adjustments, capital improvement needs, and other key financial obligations."
Anil Comelo, City Manager
*Structural Deficits per Year
$8,804,520
*Currently, the City and Finance Committee are reviewing the deficits and unfunded liabilities and are expected to publish their modified total.
The only realistic long term solution in resolving the City's dire financial crises is with a new luxury resort on Adams that can generate five times more revenue than a hotel on the old City Hall property. Over a projected 20 year period, the Adams resort could generate $125,000,000 vs the Main Hotel of only $25,000,000 in total revenue.
Cutting more City services and/or raising taxes on the Citizens is creating undue hardships for no reason when an RFP (request for proposals) can be simply implemented for the Adams property. Every TOT dollar submitted, by a new Resort on Adams, is one less dollar of tax taken out of our Pockets!
In securing substantial TOT revenue, Yountville and Calistoga have solved their financial problems and are much more prepared for inflation, recessions, and unexpected disasters. It’s time we encourage our Council to do the same.
Reconfigured and partial overlay of Solage main buildings
Bardessono hotel buildings superimposed over Adams parcel.
Twenty Year Projection
Alila hotel buildings superimposed over Adams parcel.
Adams Resort
$125,000,000
Main Hotel
$25,000,000
Annual TOT
Revenue
St. Helena $4,000,000
*Yountville $9,000,000
*Calistoga $12,000,000
* Luxury resorts with expensive suites and higher room rates, generate substantially more TOT revenue than St. Helena's hotels.
Hotel Revenue
ProForma
TOT
Prop Tax
Sales Tax
Annual
Sale Price
10 years
20 years
MAIN
old City Hall
*788,400
112,000
125,000
1,025,400
5,000,000
15,254,000
25,508,000
ADAMS
5.6 Acres
4,467,600
280,000
383,325
5,130,925
25,000,000
76,309,250
127,618,500
* MAIN hotel on old City Hall site competes with other similar class hotels in town. Creates Zero sum TOT.
TOT 12% | 60% occupancy
MAIN Hotel - 60 rooms x $500
ADAMS Resort - 85 rooms x $2,000
Why a Cultural Center?
The Downtown needs solutions to ensure long term viability and not be overly dependent on the changing wine industry and passive retail traffic. A Cultural Center, offering desirable events and amenities, would draw more locals and essential visitors as the anchor tenant on Main Street. It's the perfect synergistic mix.
What is the best use of the City's assets to enhance vitality of St. Helena while addressing our long-term fiscal viability?
City should develop an overall strategic vision for all its properties, not sell one or two off in the absence of a comprehensive plan. A short-term remedy could foreclose a long-term vision that could recapture St. Helena as the cultural heart of the Napa Valley.
What happened to the 2009 Adams Vision and why is Lyman Park a better location for Community Development?
The Citizens of St. Helena have wanted and still need a Cultural Center, with unlimited cultural experiences that would enhance the quality of life for all. The original vision for a Cultural Center on Adams in 2009 was not financially feasible as the only funds available would come from the sale of the property in the same location. Fortunately, the Adams vision was not realized as it would have been out of scale, a major financial burden, disconnected from the Downtown and in a remote location not visible to essential visitor's support. Location of a Cultural Center is critical for optimum usage and sustainability. The most highly visible location, with optimum pedestrian connectivity with the Downtown, is at the old City Hall site on Main Street next to Lyman Park. There is no better location that is both free and available in any other place in town. If you don't build in this location there most likely will never be a viable Cultural Center for future generations!
What if the City wants to sell both the old City Hall and Adams properties?
The Community would probably only support the sale of just one property and leave the other available for community development. Thus, the City should realize that the optimum revenue potential would only come from the development of the Adams parcel and not the old City Hall parcel.
Why is a Luxury Resort on Adams a better idea than a Hotel on Main (old City Hall property)?
Another 4 star hotel on Main Street would diminish Lyman Park, eliminate any future Cultural Center and would not bring enough substantial revenue to validate its entitled location. It would result in a zero sum TOT (transit occupancy tax) predicament as it would cannibalize revenue from other City hotel partners in same class. It's best to avoid unnecessary internal market competition and stratify hotel classes for optimum tax revenue. Thus, any new hotel should compete only with luxury 5 star hotels, not found within the City but outside in the County. Our current 3 & 4 star hotels also don't have premium suites at high rates which limits potential revenue. A 5+ star luxury resort on Adams with high rack rates and expensive suites would provide substantial taxes and be the only real solution to secure the future of the City's treasury. Since there are limited and competing resources of labor available for any new hotel, it would be most logical to allocate such labor to a larger luxury hotel that generates greater tax revenue for the City. The Community of St. Helena would be very excited to have a stunning, landmark Cultural Center on Main Street and perhaps support the sale of Adams as an acceptable trade and a replacement of one assets for another. Most likely there would be no community support to sell to hotel developers, the Main Street parcel first and then Adams parcel later. If a hotel goes on Main Street, then community would put pressure to realize the equivalent Cultural Center back on Adams . . . which was proven financially and logistically impractical. The City needs ever increasing, substantial revenue in perpetuity but should not always rely on increasing taxes and utility rates. The sale of the Adams parcel can both facilitate the development of a Cultural Center and keep St. Helena solvent . . . with enough long term hotel tax revenue to finally fix its infrastructure and meets its other liabilities. The City needs $8,387,657 million per year now, for the next twenty years, to sustain operations, meet liabilities and maintain essential assets.
What are the funding sources to build a Cultural Center?
The Town of Yountvile funded it's Community Center with a 30 year bond paid for by hotel TOT revenue. The City of Calistoga recently just funded and built it's first Community Center with donations from over 200 patrons. St. Helena could model its funding based on these two locals towns and/or with private-public partnerships. The sale of Adams to luxury resort would provide a projected $5,000,000 annual revenue stream from associated taxes. 20% of the revenue stream could support a bond for the construction of the Cultural Center. Ironically, this bond payment of $1,000,000 is also less than the costs of just operating the current Library.
How is a Cultural Center funded annually?
The funds needed to operate the Cultural Center would come from multiple sources such as the TOT from Adams, General Fund, Rental Fees, Donations and Sponsorships, Naming Rights, Fund Raising Events and Endowments. The General Fund would apply to the new modern Library and Parks & Recs departments, both housed in the new Cultural Center.