Reprinted with permission from Santa Barbara News-Press

Ian Schrager Hotels of New York is proposing a $25 million renovation which would make major changes to the resort.

With plans for a multi-million-dollar renovation nearly complete, this may be the last summer for the blue roofs and endearingly passe décor of the Miramar Hotel, a venerable presence on the South Coast for the past century.

Although some procedural hurdles remain, the reconstruction at the prime Montecito property may get started next year, in time to have the project finished by the beginning of 2001. Coincidentally, that would be 100 years since Bamboo, the first of the resort's quaint seaside cottages, was built to accommodate more guests and bring greater profitability to the farm then owned by the English immigrants Josiah and Emmeline Doulton.

Click on the image above to view a larger preview of the new Miramar.

After the Doulton family's ownership faltered during the Depression, the hotel was bought for $60,000 in 1939 by Paul Gawzner, an experienced hotelier from the East whose family controlled the Miramar for nearly six decades.

That era ended when the 13-acre property at Highway 101 and San Ysidro Road was bought for $31.7 million last September by a New York-based partnership fronted by Ian Schrager. The once infamous Studio 54 co-founder now heads an international company of more than a dozen luxury hotels - including the whimsically elegant Mondrian Oil Hollywood's Sunset Strip.

The new owners are Prepared to put about $25 million into the renovation work that will I do away with the Gawzners' roadside motel motif and restore a country spirit reminiscent of the Miramar's early days - and of the summer camp in the Catskill Mountains that Schrager loved as a kid in New York.

They will also bring the novel concepts - such as "lobby socializing, and "hotel as theater' - that made Schrager's company the celebrated creator of "boutique hotels." Like the Mondrian in West Hollywood, the Delano in Miami Beach, and half-dozen addresses in New York City, Schrager's hotels are also popular hangouts, marked by striking décor and diverse architectural styles.

"We don't really sell sleep and rooms, but we sell magic," said Philip Dailey, who has been with the partnership called Ian Schrager Hotels for four years. He became the Miramar's general manager five months ago.

Dailey and Brian Cearnal, a veteran Santa Barbara architect working on the Miramar, spoke Thursday at the Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce, and used a slide presentation to bring a small group of business people up to date on what's in store.

Prior to submitting plans for the renovation to the county Planning department on Jan. 7, Schrager's representatives held numerous meetings with the hotel's Montecito neighbors, incorporating suggestions and garnering critical community support along the way.

In addition, Cearnal said Thursday, the owners performed a variety of environmental studies that they hoped would persuade county planners to put their seal of approval on the renovation plans and send them on to the Planning commission for a vote. That hasn't happened yet.

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