Nearly a year after his last update to the Ukiah City Council, Palace Hotel owner Tom Carter is expected to provide a status report during the board’s next meeting Wednesday.
The agenda staff report prepared for the council’s Oct. 7 meeting by Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley states only that: “the owner of the Palace Hotel will provide the City Council with a status update of his project. Tom Carter purchased the Palace Hotel approximately two years ago, and will provide the City Council with a verbal status update on the Palace Hotel project.”
Carter last gave an update to the council in November of 2025, and was applauded and praised after showing his progress cleaning out the battered structure he bought in October of 2024.
“I can hardly believe my eyes,” Council member Mari Rodin told Tom Carter at the Nov. 19, 2025, meeting after he showed numerous photos of once-grand rooms now cleared of debris from collapsed flooring and other damage. “Congratulations, and thank you for all of the work you’ve done. I can’t believe it’s real. But when it’s going to be done? I can’t wait anymore!”
Mayor Susan Sher, who was vice-mayor at the time, also complimented Carter, a Lake County resident who worked on the revitalization of Upper Lake’s Tallman Hotel, on the improvements revealed in the before and after photographs he showed the City Council.
“I’m very impressed with what you’ve done, and there’s a little breath of fresh air,” Sher said. “But, there’s such a long way to go, and you’re going to need a ton of money. Who would put $30 to $40 million into that building?”
“It’s not going to be that much, it’s not even going to be close to that much,” said Carter, estimating that it would be more like half that, $19 to $20 million, to revive the long-empty building, which has been shuttered for more than three decades. Without naming anyone, Carter said he had “talked to a lot of investors, architects, engineers, tax people, and three people who want to put a restaurant in there.”
“Even if its $20 million, who is going to invest?” said Sher, repeating Rodin’s request for “some sort of timeline” regarding when Carter thinks the renovation project might be completed.
“I’m trying, and I’ve done more work in one year than has been done in 30 years,” said Carter, explaining that he tried to buy the building “for four years before I actually got it, and that four years made a lot of difference. When I first looked at this building, the bar (downstairs) was in perfect shape, now it’s pretty well half-rotten.
“This is a start, to get this thing out of code enforcement and get that red tag off it,” Carter continued. “People see the potential, and there is a lot of interest.”
As for a timeline, Carter said he was “on track to do this building in two years, if I had all the funding and permits (in place). But those could take me at least a year to get, so maybe four, or five years? I understand the city has been waiting a long time.”
City Manager Sage Sangiacomo then clarified that “I don’t know if we have a red tag” necessarily on the building, but that city officials were concerned about “the threat to public safety (the building poses), and can you speak to the timeline to being able to clear the health and safety concerns, like stabilization of the building, (because) those are the issues the city needs to see addressed.”
“I think we’re very close to that,” said Carter, and Sangiacomo reiterated that the city’s “primary concern is to clear the health and safety risk that had been previously identified, and I encourage you to continue working with our building department.”
When asked over the summer about the status of the building, Riley said that city officials “were hopeful that more progress would have been made by this time. The Palace is an important historic landmark in the heart of Downtown Ukiah, and everyone would like to see it restored and contributing to the vitality of our community.
“At the same time, it’s important to recognize the limits of government,” Riley explained in an email. “This is privately owned property, and the city cannot simply step in and redevelop or operate it. We have a responsibility to respect private property rights while also enforcing laws that protect public health and safety. Mr. Carter has completed the minimum work necessary to address immediate safety concerns, but we are disappointed that we have not seen more meaningful progress toward rehabilitation. We have remained willing to work collaboratively with the owner because our goal has always been to see the building restored, not to create unnecessary conflict.
“That said,” Riley continued, “every year that passes without meaningful rehabilitation makes the challenge, and the cost, of restoring this historic building even greater. Buildings of this age cannot be left vacant indefinitely without consequences. Continued deterioration not only threatens the long-term viability of the structure and those surrounding it, but also reduces the range of options available for its future. We want to see this building preserved and restored, but that opportunity will not last forever. At some point, if deterioration continues unchecked, difficult decisions that no one wants to make may become unavoidable.”
The City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 7, and can be attended both in-person at the Council Chambers at 300 Seminary Avenue, or at the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88667788948