Developer Rick Caruso is prepared to demolish the decrepit Miramar buildings if he can get the county to approve a 10-year Transient Occupancy Tax rebate for any new hotel that gets built on the property.
Rick Lemmo, Caruso’s representative, told the Montecito Association Land Use Committee this week that the developer could start the demolition phase as soon as the board approved a rebate for bed taxes on the hotel and make its existing land use permits permanent.
Lemmo said the rebate would make the proposed luxury hotel more appealing to financiers.
Getting lenders to back a project that is expected to cost $170 million has been difficult over the last few years and the rebate coupled with assurances the permits wouldn’t get snarled in red tape would quell a lot of fears.
“We believe this is a way to get the Miramar built, plain and simple,” Lemmo said.
Read more about Caruso’s offer to Santa Barbara County in this exclusive report on The Daily Sound’s Montecito Edition.
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