Lytton casino buys adjacent Moose Lodge property
SAN PABLO — Moose Lodge No. 550, a fixture of the city’s main commercial strip for more than four decades, is being sold to the owners of the adjacent San Pablo Lytton Casino for an undisclosed price.
The lodge plans to move to the current site of the Boys & Girls Club of El Sobrante, provided a tentative deal to buy that property closes as expected in about three months, Moose Lodge administrator Larry Jordan said Friday.
The El Sobrante site, at 4660 Appian Way, consists of three lots, and the lodge plans to lease back part of it to the Boys & Girls Club, he said.
As for the sale of the current lodge site, at 13233 San Pablo Ave., to the casino, “that deal has gone through,” Jordan said. The lodge has committed to vacating the premises by March 26, he said. The casino told him it intends to use the site for parking, he added.
The 1.7-acre site, containing the Moose Lodge building and ample surrounding parking, is immediately south of the casino’s main entrance.
A guard at the casino on Friday said no one in the casino administration office would be available for comment. The casino is owned by the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians.
Boys & Girls Club officials could not immediately be reached Friday.
The casino’s purchase of the Moose Lodge site has been a long time coming. The lodge explored the idea of selling the property in 2004, but said it needed to secure another premises in order to move.
The El Sobrante location, assuming the transaction with the Boys & Girls Club closes, would be in fairly convenient proximity to Interstate 80, said past administrator M. Khan. Members come from as far away as Fairfield, Khan said, adding that Moose Lodge 550 is “the most diverse of any Moose Lodge in the U.S.”
The sale of the Moose Lodge property is the latest in what have been busy recent times for real estate surrounding the casino.
The shuttered Doctors Medical Center and the remaining 8.3 acres of its campus are under contract to be sold to Davis-based Royal Guest Hotels for $13.5 million. Two years ago, the West Contra Costa Healthcare District, which owns the hospital, explored the possibility of selling the campus to the Lytton Band.
Two years ago, the Lytton Band paid $4.6 million upfront for an easement on a 2.5-acre slice of the campus adjacent to the casino that it uses for parking. Last year, the health care district sold the parking lot to San Pablo, with the Lytton easement remaining in effect.
Also last year, the district sold two medical office buildings and a residential condominium on Vale Road to San Pablo.
The tribe also owns an office building a short distance south of the casino.
~http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/03/11/san-pablo-lytton-casino-buys-ad jacent-moose-lodge-property/ ~
Artist/Author: eastbaytimes October 1, 2016 | |
