Post #451611 by Wildsville man on Mon, May 4, 2009 12:59 PM

Owners want to de-tiki the old Tiki Spa hotel
From the Desert Sun online paper 4/4/09

The once kitschy Tiki Spa hotel in Palm Springs now sits vacant and boarded up.
Gone are the tiki poles and the lava stone. Only the A-line roofs remain as a reminder of those 1960s tiki-era days.

Some would like to see the Polynesian influence remain at the dilapidated hotel at 1910 South Camino Real.

The owners have another idea.

“It won't have the tiki look,” property co-owner Allen Yadgari said. “It will be more contemporary and modern.”

Yet while Yadgari and partner Robert Kashefi have a name for their project (“Hotel Moderne”), they don't have the $2 million they say it will take to fix up the 30-room hotel.

“We are seeking financing,” Yadgari said.

One way might be to dump the property all together. It's been listed with Coldwell Banker Commercial Lyle & Associates for a year, said senior vice president Michael Kassinger. Yadgari has owned the 1.2-acre parcel for about two years and is asking about $1.6 million, Kassinger said. It was empty when he bought it.

“There's been a lot of interest,” Kassinger said. “But financing is virtually impossible to get.”

In the meantime, Yadgari said he will keep the hotel and hopes to start construction in early 2010.

Yadgari and Kashefi recently sunk $3 million into the Travelodge in Palm Springs and hope to now focus on the former Tiki Spa hotel.

All tiki-esque pieces would be removed, and the walls in the lobby would be replaced with glass. The courtyard, now overgrown, would be spruced up, and a hot tub would be added, as well as a spa.

Casey Jones, a partner with TimeOut Services in Palm Springs, said he'd like to see the Polynesian theme remain.

“That was the true history of the property,” Jones said.

In the early 2000s, Jones was part of a team that rehabilitated the Caliente Tropics, another tiki-themed hotel in Palm Springs on East Palm Canyon Drive.

When he and partner Charlie Robles came aboard, the plan was to de-tiki the hotel. That was, until the Palm Springs Modern Committee stepped in and educated them about why the personality was important.

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“We thought it was tacky and gross (at first),” Jones said, calling the tiki theme the “poor step-sister of mid-century modern architecture.”

Now he said he understands why themes and personality can play an important part in the tourism industry.

Unfortunately, he said, the former Tiki Spa on South Camino Real has probably deteriorated so much it would be difficult to bring it back to its original South Pacific grandeur.

The city's code enforcement is continually after the property owners, who are contacted often to protect the hotel from intruders, Yadgari said.

According to City Manager David Ready's April report to the City Council, the property owners have removed all dead vegetation from the north end of the parking lot and have recently re-boarded and painted the doors to the units that have been vandalized.

They are are also removing debris that resulted from recent windstorms. Code and building staff will continue to monitor the property, according to Ready's report.

Stefanie Frith covers Palm Springs for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at 778-4757

Let that Freaky Tiki Flag Fly,

wildsville man

Rory Snyder (A.K.A. Wildsville-man)

[ Edited by: wildsville man 2009-05-04 18:14 ]

[ Edited by: Wildsville man 2009-05-04 20:43 ]