Chef who has earned 20 Michelin stars finally gets approval for Bay Area hotel |
Real estate developer EKN Development, which is based in Newport Beach, Calif., is working on the Appellation Petaluma hotel, which is expected to debut in Petaluma, Calif., in 2028. Pictured is a rendering of the forthcoming project.
A controversial luxury hotel by acclaimed chef Charlie Palmer is moving forward in Petaluma, despite resistance from locals who fear it will destroy the historic downtown district.
The four-story Appellation Petaluma hotel is set to include a rooftop restaurant with sweeping views of the city, an underground “speakeasy” and a ground-level restaurant led by Palmer, a James Beard-winning chef whose restaurants like Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg and Aureole in New York City have earned him over 20 Michelin stars throughout his culinary career.
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On Tuesday, Petaluma’s Historic and Cultural Preservation Committee unanimously approved the revised design concept for the roughly 34,000-square-foot boutique hotel, which is anticipated to generate millions of dollars for the small Sonoma County town. In a statement emailed to SFGATE, Appellation Hotels and EKN Development wrote that they felt “very encouraged” by the decision and said they looked forward to working together to “enhance our community.”
But locals have spent the last four years fighting the project, saying the original six-story plans would raise the cost of living and allow future dense development in the mid-sized city. The opposition included former U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, who commented at a meeting last year that “nobody wants this.” Locals were less resistant after the developer reduced the building to four stories.
Appellation Petaluma is a forthcoming hotel owned by celebrated chef Charlie Palmer. The project is set to bring a multilevel hotel to a vacant lot in the historic downtown of Petaluma, Calif.
Brian Oh, the director of community development for the city of Petaluma, told SFGATE via email that building permits are expected to be submitted before the end of 2026 and that the project is expected to be completed by 2028. He agreed that the hotel would be an economic boon for the city.
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“It will be a catalyst for a section of downtown that has not rebounded post-pandemic and my hope is that this project encourages a new generation of economy to thrive in Petaluma for years to come,” Oh told SFGATE in a statement.
During the Tuesday meeting, Greg Powell, the principal planner for the city of Petaluma, said that the proposed hotel is expected to bring $15.7 million in annual economic activity and create more than 130 jobs. Following the meeting, Oh shared both his gratitude to the community and relief for concluding the yearslong city debate over the controversial hotel.
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Approving the luxury hotel has been met with pushback from locals, who detailed a litany of concerns that included job-housing imbalance, a rise in the cost of living and city leaders fast-tracking previous zoning rules in favor of the hotel.
Longtime Petaluma resident Bonnie Gibson, who spoke with SFGATE outside Avid Coffee steps away from the hotel site earlier this month, said she was concerned that the future hotel wouldn’t fit in with existing historical buildings, as she pointed to the nearly 120-year-old Rex Hardware store site that’s located on the next block. She thinks that the modern hotel could “completely overshadow” the storied building.
A view of downtown Petaluma, Calif.
“We’ve done a great job of maintaining our historic buildings,” Gibson said. “Looking at the designs that I’ve seen, they’ve done nothing to make it look like it fits in with the era of the town.”
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Appellation Petaluma has been hotly contested since 2022, when Newport Beach real estate developer EKN Development submitted plans to develop a six-story Petaluma hotel with a $69 million price tag, according to the Petaluma Argus-Courier, making it taller than any other building in the downtown area. Last year, members of the City Council approved the project, which gave it the green light to override previous zoning rules, the outlet reported.
The approval was met with public outcry during a City Council meeting in February 2025. Local resident Nancy Rapalus told the council that she wasn’t against new growth but was “against ruining our district, our historic district,” adding that “this whole thing seems to be just a way to get six-story buildings in downtown Petaluma.”
Woolsey, the former congresswoman, also opposed the project during that meeting.
“People come to Petaluma because they love it ... don’t mess it up. Think about that when you vote,” Woolsey said.
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A view along the waterfront in Petaluma, Calif.
During the same meeting last year, resident Darren Racusen complained that the planning commission seemed to place “expediency over integrity” when it came to the Petauma hotel by not giving the community members enough time to read and process large project documents. He added that he thought it was a “huge ask” for community members to “trust” that members of the City Council had a full scope of the project. Several members from the hotel and Unite Here Local 2, a restaurant and hotel workers’ union, were also in attendance, including Iliana Madrigal, who urged city leaders to see if the hotel would exacerbate affordable housing and worsen the job crisis.
EKN Development later downsized the project to a four-story building, which reduced the hotel’s rooms from more than 90 to 56. The revision also eliminated its originally planned underground parking garage of 58 spaces for 10 street-level parking spaces. By reducing the hotel’s size, the project also faces less oversight from the city and is easier to approve, the Petaluma Argus-Courier reported.
The Petaluma Historic Advocates previously opposed the six-level hotel plan and gained enough signatures to add a referendum on a future ballot that would suspend the zoning overlay. According to the Petaluma Argus-Courier, the City Council has not placed the referendum on the ballot but is set to consider the move in March.
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Appellation Petaluma is a forthcoming hotel owned by celebrated chef Charlie Palmer. The project is set to bring a multilevel hotel to a vacant lot in the historic downtown of Petaluma, Calif.
Thomas Lewis of the Petaluma Historic Advocates told SFGATE in a statement that the organization has since supported the scaled-down, four-story hotel, which was approved Tuesday. He added that the organization supported “a hotel that is compliant with our existing building codes and ordinances.”
Local residents like Gibson have repeatedly warned that the hotel would cause parking problems for the city. Oh has refuted that idea, saying a city study in 2025 found that downtown parking has enough space between the three public parking lots and more street parking. He added that the hotel anticipates it will take advantage of downtown’s Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit and bus stations, which will give visitors a range of travel options. Additional parking spaces around town could be added “where possible,” Oh said.
The Petaluma hotel will be the third California-based hotel under Palmer’s hospitality group, Appellation Hotels, which opened luxury hotels in Healdsburg and Lodi in 2025. Two more hotels are headed to the state, with Appellation Pacific Grove slated to open later this year and Hotel MOHI by Appellation expected to open in Morgan Hill by 2027. Though details are slim for the Petaluma hotel, Palmer told the Press Democrat in 2024 that he planned to highlight local businesses like Cowgirl Creamery, Liberty Ducks, Tomales Bay Foods and Petaluma-based bakery Della Fattoria.
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Amid the opposition to his hotel last year, Palmer tried to clear the air by telling Petalumans that the project was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” and “should make all Petalumans proud,” he wrote in an open letter to the Press Democrat. He promised that his hotel would support small businesses, farmers and winemakers while also playing a positive role in the community.
“There are very few places in the world that have all the attributes that we are so fortunate to have: food, wine, charm and, most importantly — community,” Palmer wrote in May 2025. “And for Petaluma, that can never change. But it can evolve.”
Appellation Petaluma is a forthcoming hotel owned by celebrated chef Charlie Palmer. The project is set to bring a multilevel hotel to a vacant lot in the historic downtown of Petaluma, Calif.
Not every Petaluma local is angry about the Michelin-starred chef coming to town. Local Bill Bockwoldt told SFGATE that the hotel project is a step in the right direction for Petaluma, which could benefit from tourism.
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“Petaluma used to be a place that people left all weekend to go to other places, and now people from Sonoma and the city come here for the weekend to the restaurants in downtown. I think this is the direction that Petaluma is going, whether people like it or not,” Bockwoldt said earlier this month near the proposed project site.
Oh echoed Bockwoldt’s sentiment by saying that the city’s historic downtown shouldn’t avoid growth.
“Petaluma has a long, storied history and charm, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t facilitate new development that works alongside our existing, historic buildings,” Oh said. “New development is a positive way to ensure that our historic charm is preserved for years to come.”
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An additional $33 million in transient occupancy taxes, about $50 million in total sales tax revenues and about $11.4 million in property tax revenue are expected in the span of 30 years, planner Powell added.
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