It is very nice to finally see lodging being built along our rivers and an encouraging sign of our region's growing maturity as a destination.
Bob Shallit: Luxury hotelier goes with the flow
By Bob Shallit - bshallit@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, December 10, 2007
Developer Bob Leach has patiently waited more than a decade to build a hotel on the Sacramento River.
Now, with the $32 million project nearing completion, he's seeing an upside to years of frustrating delays caused by neighborhood opposition and environmental hurdles.
"The thing is, this was a good idea 13 years ago," he says, while giving a tour of his 101-room Le Rivage hotel and the adjoining Scott's Seafood Grill and Bar, both of which will open in early January. "Now it's a great idea."
In other words, Sacramento has matured and the former site of the long-gone Captain's Table restaurant is now ready for what Leach describes as a "first-class hotel with an Italian and French Riviera" flavor.
Riviera on the river? Sure, says Leach. The polished marble flooring is from Italy. So are the guest robes and high-end linens. The stone archway at the entrance is "our little piazza," with Italian pavers underfoot.
As Leach envisions it, guests will stand on their private balconies, "with a glass of vino and listen to Italian opera" coming from performers at the hotel's riverside amphitheater.
"You get the drift," he says.
Leach says he decided a year ago to upgrade the project from upscale to luxury. ("The market had evolved to the point where that was the one area not covered," he says.)
In this case, luxury means $250- to- $575- a-night rooms and suites, with amenities like claw-foot soaking tubs or Jacuzzis, fireplaces, treadmills and 42-inch flat-screen TVs. The Lt. Governor's Suite has a billiards table; the Governor's Suite features a large handcrafted conference table (imported from Italy, natch), along with separate living quarters.
But the project's key selling point is its connection with the river.
