Holman Building gets $5.5 million offer

Nader Agha stands outside the Holman Building in Pacific Grove in 2005. (David Royal, Monterey Herald)

Another day, another million.

The online auction for the historic Holman Building continued Tuesday with a bid of $5.5 million. The auction ends Wednesday.

On Monday, a bid of $4.5 million was registered on Auction.com. Mike Bitar of Executive Commercial, which is running the auction, said he is prevented from disclosing names of bidders.

The property and 5-story building is valued at $6.5 million, according to the Monterey County Assessor's Office. Owner Nader Agha put the building for sale in 2008 for $17.5 million.

Bitar said most bids come on the last day. He said he is getting several calls a day about the property.

The 120,000-square-foot property was home to the former Holman's department store. It was featured in John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" with the story of a man roller skating above the store as a promotion.

Agha has “sole and absolute discretion” to accept the winning bidder’s offer, say legal documents posted on Auction.com.

Holman Building gets first bid

The historic Holman Building in Pacific Grove has received an offer of $4.5 million, according to an online auction that started Monday.

The bid is $1 million more than the starting bid. The auction ends Wednesday.

Mike Bitar of Executive Commercial, which is running the auction, said he is prevented from saying yet who made the bid or if there has been more than one.

"God willing, it will be sold this time," Bitar said Monday night.

It appears that the auction is off to slow start; Owner Nader Agha put the 5-story building up for sale in 2008 for $17.5 million. Bitar said most bids come the last day.

Two potential bidders have gone public: Some members of the Shake family (who envision turning it into a marketplace like the San Francisco Ferry Building) and NxGen Capital (that wants to turn it into an assisted living/memory care facility).

Agha has owned the building since 1995 and put the property on the market several times. In 2012, an attempt to rezone the building to allow for development of a 200-plus-room hotel was defeated by Pacific Grove voters.

Monterey passes law to require tobacco permits

It is getting a lot harder to be a cigarette smoker, and seller, in Monterey.

Smoking is banned on the Recreation Trail, city beaches, public parking lots and even Fisherman's Wharf. Also, good luck finding an ashtray downtown.

The City Council took it a step further last week by passing a new law to requiring  the city's roughly 50 retailers who sell tobacco apply for a $236 yearly permit. The county, which already requires unincorporated areas to get a county permit, would distribute the license on Monterey's behalf.

Permit requirements likely not be needed until mid-summer after the city works out logistics with the county.

The permit may be revoked if a retailer is found to have sold to minors. Fines will range from $1,000 for the first violation to $5,000 for the second violation and suspension of tobacco selling privileges.

Dale Hillard of Monterey County Collaborates has been working hard to get local cities to pass similar permit rules.

Hillard talks about why he thinks the new law is important here:

Holman Building goes up on auction

The historic Holman Building has been put on auction but how serious the attempt is remains to be seen.

Peninsula businessman Nader Agha bought the 120,000-square-foot Pacific Grove building on Lighthouse Avenue in 1995 and has put it up for sale before.

In 2008, he was asking $17.5 million for the landmark hotel. He said, at the time, he put it on the market because he was frustrated by years of delays to build a luxury hotel.

His latest attempt, posted last week on Auction.com, said indicative bids are due by 5 p.m. on Halloween. From there, prospective buyers will be selected by him for a final auction and required to post a minimum deposit of $100,000.

The final auction for the 90-year-old building will be held Nov. 19.

Foreign buyers are permitted to participate but any purchase must be in cash unless otherwise approved by Agha.

The rules for the auction may raise some red flags for potential buyers. In the fine print of the agreement, it says Agha has “sole and absolute discretion” to accept the winning bidder’s offer.

Most people I called about this auction seemed jaded after years of rumors about new buyers for the Holman Building, as well as the frequency it seems to go up for sale.

So far, efforts to reach Agha have been unsuccessful.

Given the importance of the building to downtown Pacific Grove (which even resulted in a 2012 election) it isn't a situation that is likely to go away anytime soon.

More women for Naval Postgraduate School?

Rear Admiral Jan Tighe, former NPS interim president, looks on
at a press conference in 2012 (Dave Royal/Monterey Herald).

U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced a plan Wednesday to increase the amount of women in Navy and Marine Corps, according to Reuters.

Monterey's Naval Postgraduate School counts just ll percent of its student body as women, said school spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Greg Flores.

It is slightly better, 18 percent, for non-resident students; that's civilian and foreign exchange students, as well as those completing degrees with distance learning.

Mabus made his comments at Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington, D.C. He said women represented 18 percent of the Navy and 8 percent of the Marine Corps.

"I don't know exactly what the goal ought to be, but I know those are too low," he said.

Mabus said the Navy was coming up with ways on its own to get more women but some measures would need congressional approval. No word on what that could mean for NPS.

I asked Flores if NPS does anything to encourage women to attend and this is what he said:

"We encourage all interested candidates who meet our enrollment criteria to apply to one of our Graduate or Doctoral programs. Gender is not a criteria for enrollment at NPS. Selection for the Navy's fully funded graduate education program is based on outstanding professional performance, promotion potential and a strong academic background. Officers interested in this program contact their assignment officers to determine their  professional qualification and assignment availability.  Upon determination of academic qualification, individuals may be eligible for consideration and assignment at NPS."

In 2013, there were 1,633 full-time resident students at the school. Of that, 180 were women and 1,453 men. That's eight men for every one woman.

Is Goldenvoice hiding First City Festival numbers?

Best Coast performs on Saturday at First City Festival 

As someone who attended First City Festival both days two years in a row, I can tell you attendance was down this weekend from 2013.

I think it is noteworthy a potential major tourism draw for Monterey did not get more popular in its second year (probably not a good sign for a music festival), despite arguably better known acts such as Beck and Phantogram.

This is perhaps why concert promoter Goldenvoice has been ducking me for three days. Despite repeated attempts to reach them by phone and email, I keep being told they are too busy to talk. 

This could be some sort of "small town newspaper" scenario. Who cares about the Monterey Herald if you have Rolling Stone on the other line? Yet, last year, I got them on the phone almost immediately. 

In that article, Goldenvoice executive Rick Mueller told me the morning after the festival his company's attendance estimates and its hope for future events. I was told Monday by Goldenvoice they could not talk until Tuesday, told Tuesday they could talk that day but then did not respond to my email, and then this morning told they could talk but did not reply to my response.

The festival drew roughly 10,000 people both days in 2013, Goldenvoice told me at the time. My personal guess for attendance this year was around 8,000 on Saturday and 5,000 on Sunday.

A few estimates were made in other media: SF Weekly said the festival "didn't have a huge attendance," Herald freelancer Beth Peerless said she spoke to someone at Goldenvoice on Sunday who put it at 9,000 each day and the San Jose Mercury News made a Saturday estimate of 8,000.

I'm fine just using what Goldenvoice told us Sunday for attendance (although, I would guess that is a bit high) but, for the newspaper, I would like to ask the promoter what it means and why they think it happened. 

Monterey police have already told me attendance was down for the festival, which law enforcement statistics at least partially reinforce. 

Last year, there were 12 arrests inside the fairgrounds and 23 citations outside during the festival on Saturday and Sunday, Monterey police said.

Lt. Leslie Sonne said there were no arrests inside the fairgrounds this year and just five citations outside.

One person was arrested outside Sunday around 1 p.m. for possession of methamphetamine, Sonne said. There was also a report of a theft of a wallet out of an unattended purse Saturday. 

I happened to be there for all the major acts both years -- and took video. Unfortunately, they both look pretty bad but you can see the Modest Mouse crowd was much thicker toward the front.

Here is Modest Mouse closing the show Sunday night in 2013: 

Here is The National closing the show Sunday night in 2014: 

I guess one could just argue Modest Mouse is more popular than The National, which is another reason why I can't really say for sure what happened on Sunday when attendance appeared to have gone down significantly.

Also, another anecdotal observation that I cannot pin down until I talk to Goldenvoice is the high amount of give-away tickets and last-minute deals on tickets. I ran into three friends that told me they got free tickets and you should have seen my friend Jeff's face (who flew up from Los Angeles and paid full price) when two Santa Cruz women told us they got their tickets for $50.

There are a lot of  factors to consider in the success of the festival. Even attendance may not be a fair analysis if you consider all the free tickets. They also could have made a high profit on concessions after it bought out concessionaire services from the Monterey County Fair.

Rep. Sam Farr on Monterey Downs

U.S. Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel) met with veterans earlier this week to discuss issues of note to the community, but the talked veered into other areas such as the proposed Monterey Downs project.

Although Farr has made comments regarding a land-use measure designed to stop the equestrian-themed project (he was against it), he typically steers clear of discussing the project directly.

Downs is a major development proposed for 550 acres of Fort Ord straddling the east side of Seaside. The city of Seaside is handling the project application. Developer Brian Boudreau, a major figure in the horse racing world, unveiled the $750 million project in 2010.

The project is somewhat connected to the proposed Fort Ord veterans cemetery because it is included in Downs' environmental assessment and developers plan to buy a 30-acre endowment parcel north of the 78-acre cemetery to help fund the burial place and its roads.

"The developer has an option on that parcel. If he was really sincere he'd just give you the money" before the project is approved, Farr said.

"That's not part of the (veterans) cemetery project. Monterey Downs rises and falls on its own merits," he said. "It's got to go through tons of political issues. It has so many gates it needs to go through."

He said was not sure what the current status of the project was at but he was "not so keen on it anyway."

Downs calls for 1,280 homes and apartments, a horse track, stables, a 6,500-seat sports arena, a horse park, three hotels, a swim and tennis club, offices, a veterinary clinic and commercial space. There would be 73 acres of habitat preservation area and 74 acres of parks and open space.