LOS GATOS — A big Bay Area homebuilder has struck a deal to buy a Depression-era Los Gatos hotel as a potential prelude to a housing development at a prime location.
Summerhill Homes has obtained a purchase contract to buy Los Gatos Lodge, a well-known hotel on a choice site in Los Gatos.
The homebuilder is buying an 8.8-acre site at 50 Los Gatos-Saratoga Road, according to documents filed on Oct. 20 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
The terms of the purchase agreement weren’t disclosed in the public filing.
“We will replace the lodge with housing,” Anabelle Salum, director of marketing with Summerhill Homes, said in a comment emailed to this news organization.
The garden-style hotel totals 128 rooms and consists of multiple buildings.
“The original hotel was built in 1936 and has not undergone significant remodeling or reconstruction since the 1970s,” a report circulated in 2014 by the Town of Los Gatos stated.
In the wake of the coronavirus-spawned business shutdowns that state and local government officials imposed to combat the spread of the deadly bug, numerous hotel properties in the Bay Area and nationwide have struggled to regain their pre-COVID economic vibrancy.
As a result, housing is being viewed as a potential alternative to some existing housing sites.
Residential development appears to be seen by real estate firms as a viable future use for the old Los Gatos Lodge, the municipality’s 2014 report indicated.
“The town has received numerous inquiries from prospective residential developers,” the report stated.