UKIAH, CA., 10/31/26 — The Ukiah City Council will take up the Palace Hotel again Wednesday, Nov. 4, when city staff are to bring options for what the city can do next about the vacant downtown hotel.
On Oct. 7, the council voted 5-0 to put the Palace on the Nov. 4 agenda whether or not owner Tom Carter delivers a letter he told the council was coming. Carter told the council the letter, from architect Richard Ruff, would say the building is structurally sound. Carter said he’d have it in 10 to 14 days. That window closed Oct. 21.
He said the letter was drafted and “in the hands of attorneys.” He said he would bring it to the city’s building department “as soon as I get it.”
As of Wednesday, nothing new about the Palace had been posted on the city’s website, and the Nov. 4 agenda hadn’t been published. The city’s Palace Hotel page was last updated Jan. 3, 2025.
Chief Building Official Matt Keizer told the council on Oct. 7 that the city’s remaining requirement is “a letter saying the building is structurally sound and it’s no longer a public hazard.” City Manager Sage Sangiacomo said that with such a letter, the pedestrian protection “that is blocking the sidewalks could come out.”
The tools the city has
The city’s November 2023 notice of violation, issued to the building’s prior owner, lists what the city can do if an owner doesn’t act. Under state law, violating the building code is a misdemeanor. A first offense carries a $1,000 fine, six months in county jail or both, rising to $5,000 for a later violation. The city can also sue to have the building declared a public nuisance and recover the cost of tearing it down, or ask a court to appoint a receiver to take control of the property, make repairs and place the cost on it as a lien.
Sangiacomo told the council the city has “not enforced any of the penalty provisions” in city code.
The city tried a receiver earlier. The council declared the Palace a dangerous building in 2011 and in February 2015 ordered it repaired or removed. A court appointed a receiver in January 2017, according to a November 2024 letter from the city attorney to Carter. The receiver borrowed $577,576 from Jitu Ishwar, and after a notice of default, Ishwar bought the hotel at a foreclosure sale on Jan. 11, 2019. In 2021, the receiver asked to be released, saying the Palace “lacked sufficient value to secure financing to pay for the cost to stabilize the building.” The court discharged the receiver in October 2022.
Carter bought Twin Investments LLC, the company whose only asset is the Palace, on Oct. 15, 2024. The structural engineering firm he hired, ZFA, reported that month that “the structure is dangerous as it exists.”
Council member Doug Crane warned on Oct. 7 that if the city pushes, an owner could walk away and leave the city to pay for demolition. “We spend more money tearing the thing down than the land is worth,” he said.
Mayor Susan Sher said at the same meeting: “I’ve just come to the point where I’ve given up, and I don’t really see any realistic possibility.”
The Nov. 4 meeting falls the day after the Nov. 3 election, when three council seats are on the ballot. Sher, council member Mari Rodin and Vice Mayor Juan Orozco are among the eight candidates for the three open seats The winners don’t take office until Dec. 1, so the five current members who voted on Oct. 7 will hear the item.
The council’s regular meetings start at 5:15 p.m. in the Civic Center Council Chamber, 300 Seminary Ave., Ukiah, with a Zoom link on the agenda.