It was Mark Twain who famously offered the advice, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.” That couldn’t be more true in Marin, where so much news these days is tied to real estate in all forms.
If you’re looking for a property that needs a little love, Michael Mackintosh has something—it includes 25 acres, leased assets, and a colorful history. The hitch is it’s uncertain what the land can be used for. Also, it carries a price tag of $68 million.
Mackintosh owns the property long known as Town and Country Club, the former Fairfax resort that served as an escape for San Franciscans searching for a break from fog and crowded restaurants. It operated from 1944 to 1972 and included an eatery, swimming pools and cabins. It even had a baseball diamond in case visitors were in the mood for a little batting practice or felt like shagging some fly balls.
Mackintosh bought the property in 2002 for $5 million. Four years later, he asked the town council to consider a project including a hotel, senior housing and housing for existing tenants. The development was also slated to include swimming pools, a restaurant, a museum and a soccer field.
Loud opposition forced him to pull the project, and in 2008 the property hit the market at $36 million. The property isn’t zoned for housing so any change in that status would require the blessing of voters, who have repeatedly said housing or development isn’t their pint of craft brew.
Fairfax is an interesting place politically. It’s famously liberal. It’s very in touch with protecting the environment. And, to steal from the Eagles’ song Sad Cafe, Fairfax is a place where “things in this life change very slowly, if they ever change at all.”
That said, Town and Country could see a shift. Fairfax, like every other town, county and city in California, is under legal obligation to provide the opportunity to build housing. For Fairfax, that means designating locations where 490 housing units could be built between next year and 2031.
The town is under no obligation to build the housing itself, but must provide for areas zoned for housing under the law.
So, 25 acres of land hitting the market where housing could be built represents an interesting conundrum. On the one hand a fair number of units could be built on that land, taking Fairfax off that troublesome hook, not to mention providing needed housing. Also, if a hotel was built, town coffers would see new tax revenue.
But…residents are likely to elect Donald Trump mayor before greenlighting a zoning change. Could the idea be skillfully sold to residents as a way to get the state’s housing boogeyman off Fairfax’s back? How much housing would residents tolerate on Pastori Avenue? What reaction would the state have to such a proposal if the Town was asking the voters to approve housing at Town and Country, wink-wink, nod-nod?
What would such a project cost? How would such a project deal with questions regarding environment, density, traffic and affordability?
It becomes even more interesting when you consider the owner, Mackintosh. By all accounts, he’s a good guy and has always talked about the inclusion of senior housing in any project he would back. But because of Prop. 19, he now feels holding the property and waiting for a blessing that has never come, is asking him and his family to retain too much risk.
Town and Country presents an opportunity for the Town of Fairfax, but residents perceive risk as well.
Only in Marin
It would seem Marinites haven’t met an old theater in disrepair that doesn’t capture their hearts. Efforts are now being made to renovate the Hamilton Theater on the former air force base that was taken over by the city of Novato.
Previously, the Lark Theater at 549 Magnolia Ave. was successfully renovated and now plays host to live streaming events ranging from Live from the Metropolitan Opera to the National Theatre, as well as art house films.
And a series of efforts has been made to bring the Novato Theater back to life in Old Town, though those attempts have failed to gain enough traction to get the doors open.
The Hamilton Theater has been shuttered for decades and Father Time has extracted a toll on the building constructed in 1938. The effort to resuscitate the theater is being led by the Hamilton Arts Foundation and Laura van Galen, the former owner of the Fenix night club in San Rafael.
“The enthusiasm is there. Everybody wants to see this done. I see that from everyone,” van Galen told the Marin IJ. Donald Trump speech pattern aside, it sounds like van Galen has tapped into energy to move the project forward.
