Scenic small town along Sacramento River could get new riverfront hotel
HOOD – A small town in the Sacramento Delta with less than 300 people could soon be a new hotspot for tourism.
Developers say the town of Hood is the perfect place for a new boutique hotel. This scenic spot could soon be the site of Sacramento County's newest luxury inn.
"This is the perfect opportunity to build another beautiful hotel on the riverfront," hotel developer Robert Leach said.
Leach has big plans for this location along the Sacramento River in the tiny delta town of Hood.
"There's really nothing that would be like a luxury boutique hotel in this marketplace, so we'd like to be the first," Leach said.
His idea is to demolish this vacant 80-year-old warehouse that was once used to pack and ship pears and build a new 60-room hotel on top of the levee.
Each suite in the four-story hotel would face the water with a pool and a marina with space for 20 boats right on the river.
"On the weekends, you would see kind of a social clientele, weddings, special events, tourists, during the weekdays the opportunity is there to put retreats and corporate meetings and things here with smaller groups," Leach said.
This isn't his first waterfront project. He also built the Westin Hotel where Scott's Seafood is in Sacramento and the Lake Natoma Inn in the city of Folsom.
Many community members in Hood support the plan.
"I thought it was a wonderful idea," said Dan Whaley, the owner of The Window Ballroom.
Whaley's family operates the Willow Ballroom and Event Center next door to where the hotel would be built.
He says the project could help local vineyards and boost tourism in the delta.
"People wine taste from noon to 5 p.m. and then they need someplace to go and so having a hotel where they can go spend the night really makes people happy," Whaley said.
They say the ballroom and the new hotel make a perfect pair in this old pear farming town.
"It's a charming place and I think this will be a big plus for the community," Leach said.
The project will need to be approved by the county planning commission and other regulatory agencies before construction can begin. They're hoping to break ground in the spring of next year.
