Jun. 13, 2003 - Developers of the proposed Hotel Carrillo on Wednesday secured $20 million in final financing and named a Beverly Hills company as its future operator. 

The 96-room, five-story hotel at the corner of Chapala and Carrillo streets in downtown Santa Barbara is to open in late 2004, said Dave Odell, an executive with the TynanGroup in Santa Barbara -- the developer and project manager. 

The $31 million project will have a July 1 ceremonial groundbreaking, Mr. Odell said. After that, crews will dig down another 20 feet to prepare foundations and construct the underground parking garage. Above that level will be the basement for conference rooms. 

On Wednesday, the Hotel Carrillo Partnership closed financing. First Bank & Trust of St. Louis, Mo., is the lead bank for the $20 million construction loan. San Joaquin Bank of Bakersfield is a participating lender under First Bank to the tune of $5 million. 

The remaining $11 million was raised by a limited partnership of about 30 investors. A little more than half are locals who each put in $50,000 to $500,000 to raise a portion of the equity. About half of the $11 million comes from the TynanGroup Inc., headed by John Tynan, and from Richard Sanders Investments. 

"This is one of the few new hotels to be built in the country to get financing after 9/11," Mr. Odell said. "We had one great advantage in putting this together -- Santa Barbara. It is consistently one of the best-performing markets in the country, even after 9/11 and events in the Middle East." 

The hotel's operator is The Edward Thomas Companies of Beverly Hills. That enterprise operates the five-star Casa Del Mar Hotel and the Shutters Hotel in Santa Monica. 

Melchiori Construction Co. of Santa Barbara is the general contractor in a joint venture with Matt Construction of Santa Fe Springs. Matt Construction has experience in high-rise projects. Mr. Odell said Melchiori is expected to hire many local contractors for the job. 

The hotel will fill the void left by the five-story Carrillo Hotel that was demolished in late 1998 because the 74-year-old structure could not meet the city's seismic retrofit standards. 

Financing for a previously approved version of the new hotel never materialized. This proposal was introduced in 2000 and won city approval in February 2001. But the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the economic downturn and the war in Iraq further slowed financing. 

The hotel will have a restaurant on the ground floor with entry at the corner of Carrillo and Chapala. There also will be a rooftop swimming pool. 

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(c) 2003, Santa Barbara News-Press, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.