By Billy Fried
Well it’s open season on Mo Honarkar, the embattled lease-owner and redeveloper of the Hotel Laguna. Two weeks ago there were three articles in this paper highly critical of Honarkar’s efforts to steward the project. After all, he’s been shut down three times by the city for work he did without permits. I’ll admit the optics are bad, and that it takes a special kind of hubris to think you can get away with anything in this town without micro scrutiny and snitches – particularly with the most beloved landmark that has for too long languished in squalor.
In a fit of hyperbole, columnist Ann Christoph compared Honarkar’s deception to Watergate. You know, the burglary that deposed a president and sent men to prison. But don’t think it’s only the anti-development folks who are “no Mo.” Longtime pro-development consultant (and former Laguna Mayor) Paul Freeman unleashed a torrent of accusations, characterizing Honarkar’s efforts as a “clown show,” and admonishing the city to shut him down for good. Now in fairness, Freeman did work for Honarkar and was dismissed. Is it sour grapes or just desserts? I wanted to find out, and sensing a juicy story that would make for great radio, I invited Freeman onto my show last week to further unpack his “no Mo” campaign. When word reached Honarkar, he asked me to tour the hotel beforehand to see his side of the story. I thought that would be the fair thing to do.
Now I’m no building or code inspector; I am into the visceral hit. And this place is going to be quite special. Finally. Because in the near quarter century I’ve lived here, it’s been a dump. And despite the rumors of Honarkar’s imminent financial demise, he’s plugging right along – with the ground and lower floor public areas poised for reopening. Which would be good for employment, our tax rolls, and us. Just not likely this summer, as he had hoped.
I’m not defending Honarkar or his projects. The 600-foot-long hotel in North Laguna is a “no Mo” for me on scale and neighborhood compatibility alone. It calls onto question his grasp of our village character. But the rest are just re-developments of tired buildings. So far he’s done a great job of putting lipstick on that other pig, The Festival Marketplace, filling it with colorful murals, and installing quality tenants we actually patronize. And the restoration of Terra at the Festival of Arts brought Don Williamson’s stunning 1957 parabola roof back from obscurity.
Honarkar has a huge target on his back. He just owns too much prized real estate in town, and people are distrustful of his motives – and weary of his taste. He’s also managed some PR blunders, like saying the remodels were “his gift to Laguna.”
So now Honarkar’s focused on the biggest “gift” of all, the one that will win him the admiration, trust, and patronage of his community. And of course he’s in a hurry, with few if any of his other projects moving (gotta to make that cash flow a little mo’). No excuse for shortcutting, but with a century-old monolith in abject decay, you don’t know what you’ve got until you look under the hood. His team found some original Spanish beams that were hidden above the heinous drop ceilings in the hallway, restoring them to their original volume and grandness. He’s opened the lobby to make it more inviting. There’s more light everywhere. And when I asked Honarkar why he didn’t submit a macro plan for the entire hotel, he said because he’s focused on getting the ground floor public areas opened first so we can all enjoy the place. And then he’ll move onto the rooms.
So what about Paul Freeman and the other assortment of town critics, curmudgeons and watchdogs? I tried hard to defend Honarkar’s actions in my interview with Freeman, but he is way too smart for me, and there’s really no comeback to assertions that Honarkar has disdain for the system and that the city has been derelict in enforcing them. This is a man who built hundreds of cell phone stores in record time – twice. He has an enormous capacity for work, but little tolerance for bureaucracy. However, I am certain he’s not the first developer who has been red tagged for moving too fast.
At the end of the day it comes down to whether you believe he is acting out of impulse rather than premeditation, naiveté rather than arrogance. Or whether any of it really matters so long as we get the place open before we’re all in the ground!
The Paul Freeman interview can be found under the program “Laguna Talks” on kxfmradio.org.
Billy hosts “Laguna Talks” on KXFM radio at 8 p.m. on Thursdays.
