St. Helena torn over growing pains
Guneet Bajwa, managing principal for Presidio Companies, knows what it’s like to jump through the bureaucratic hoops involved in building hotels in California and the west. But his Sacramento hospitality development company nearly met its match when it first applied to build Las Alcobas, the tony resort that opened last summer on Main Street in St. Helena, the quaint fives-quare-mile Napa Valley town of 6,000 people known for its wineries, restaurants and walkable downtown.
“St. Helena may be one of the most difficult places to build in the entire country,” Bajwa says. Las Alcobas is the first new hotel built in the town in years. It took Bajwa seven years, from when he purchased the property in 2010, to open in May 2017. “It’s a small town. Change is difficult.”
The constant tug-of-war between stagnation and growth is playing out not with major commercial-industrial developments, but with upscale wineries, bars and restaurants. In the past couple of years, several new high-profile establishments have opened their doors. Besides the 68-room Las Alcobas with its 50-seat restaurant, Acacia House by Chris Cosentino, last summer also marked the debut of the hearth-centered Charter Oak.
Replacing locals’ favorite Tra Vigne, an Italian restaurant that operated in downtown for nearly three decades, it is the much-anticipated casual concept by Michelin three-starred chef Christopher Kostow of the Restaurant at Meadowood. Off the Silverado Trail in St. Helena, Brasswood Bar & Kitchen opened in 2016 with an Italian-centric menu overseen by Chef David Nuno, formerly of Tra Vigne. Two Birds One Stone, a modern-day yakitori, opened to acclaim in 2016.
The arrival of these new businesses has not come without strain. Concerned about the recent rapid approvals for certain building plans for wineries, hotels and housing, a group of residents in September launched a campaign to recall St. Helena Mayor Alan Galbraith. Their main concerns: increased trucking traffic on Main Street, strain on the city’s wastewater treatment plant and the proximity of a proposed winery expansion to the city’s high school.
Three months later, those recall efforts were aborted after the mayor agreed to hold at least three public forums presided over by retired Judge Scott Snowden of St. Helena. Those meetings, which will likely conclude at the end of this month, each focus on a different topic: water issues, financial oversight and due process. Two have been held, drawing about 70 or more residents each time.
Galbraith, whose term is up in November, says he’s tried to balance the needs of residents and commercial imperatives. He says he will decide this spring whether to run for re-election.
“The recall process was a distraction,” he says. “Now, we can focus on ways to deal with our capital needs. We need to discuss where revenues will come from, whether it will be from tax revenue or the sale of certain assets.”
Kathy Coldiron, a proponent of the mayoral recall and a retired teacher who moved to St. Helena 25 years ago, still worries about the town’s future, but is grateful the town hall meetings have attracted so many people.
“The town’s future livability is still teetering on the edge,” she says. “Residents need to be more informed. It’s a small town, and a lot of people don’t think things are changing. But by the time they find out, it may be too late.”
There’s no question that Las Alcobas could help the city’s bottom line. Bajwa’s company contributed nearly $1 million to upgrade a city sewage pump station, as a condition for approval of the project. The hotel is also forecast to provide more than $1 million in hotel tax revenue to the city this year.
Chef Doug Keane of Two Birds One Stone sees both sides. He didn’t hear grumbling while planning Two Birds One Stone because the location was previously a restaurant. But when he opened his now-shuttered Market restaurant on Main Street in 2003, it was a different story.
“Back then, St. Helena had a very closed-minded attitude toward development. It was hard to get anything passed,” Keane says. “The city cut itself off from growth for so long that it missed out on opportunities that went to Yountville and Napa instead.”
Longtime restaurateur Cindy Pawlcyn, a St. Helena resident who opened Mustards Grill in 1982 and Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen in 2003, bemoans the traffic, but knows that a steady stream of visitors is vital to the town: Upscale restaurants can’t survive on just the patronage of locals, she says, especially because many residents are secondhome owners who don’t reside in town year-round — a trend Mayor Galbraith says is growing.
Kostow, of the Restaurant at Meadowood, knows how tricky it can be to operate in a small town. Restaurants in St. Helena have to work hard to build a reputation and clientele, he says, because tourists don’t always know where to dine in this competitive landscape. Locals may not be immediately welcoming, either, especially when a cherished restaurant is replaced by another. Indeed, a few residents vowed they would never eat at Charter Oak for that reason. Kostow thinks he’s managed to sway some of the naysayers who have ventured inside.
“I appreciate people not liking change,’’ he says. “But life is pretty boring if nothing ever changes.”