Things are finally happening at Caruso’s Corner on North Fremont Street in Monterey, just not what was envisioned in recent years. Lakshmi Hotel Partners, which purchased the property in December 2017 for $3.05 million, abandoned their plans for an approved, 42-room boutique hotel at 2101 North Fremont St., home to the shuttered Caruso’s Corner restaurant and Casa Verde Inn motel.
On Sept. 5, Lakshmi sold the property for $3.13 million to Isabella LLC. New owner Chris Shake has plans to remake the property within existing structures.
Lakshmi’s proposed hotel came before the Monterey Planning Commission in 2021 and faced swift neighborhood pushback and threats of litigation over parking, so the developers paid for an environmental impact report. Concurrently, the city added an economic incentive of reimbursing the developers up to $550,000 after building the hotel.
Monterey City Council approved the hotel and EIR in November 2023. Kim Cole, Monterey’s community development director, says building permits have been ready to be issued for the project since June 2024, but were never pulled.
That won’t change anytime soon, as Shake says he has no intention of using them – he says the plans didn’t pencil out for the prior developer. Shake is planning to brand the corner Isabella Monterey, named after his mother, who with Shake’s dad, Sabu, opened the Old Fisherman’s Grotto on Fisherman’s Wharf in 1950.
“I bought the property for an investment,” Shake says. “I thought it was a great location, a prime piece of real estate on North Fremont – I would say one of the best locations in that area.”
Shake plans to do a “major renovation… to make it closer to a boutique motel.” He adds, “When people check in, I want them to get the impression, ‘Gosh, this is a room I have in my home.’ That kind of feel. I don’t want them to feel like it’s an ordinary hotel.”
Shake is planning to lease out both the restaurant and motel – at 18-21 rooms – and hopes both will be up and running by late spring. He plans to start recruiting would-be tenants soon.
While Shake plans to brand the corner Isabella Monterey, he says the names of the restaurant and hotel will be at the discretion of the new tenants.
And while it’s just a makeover, it’s still the most significant commercial redevelopment the corridor has seen since the Monterey City Council adopted the North Fremont Specific Plan on April 1, 2014.
That plan calls for a walkable, “mixed-used village” that would reduce vehicle trips and “improve the quality of the pedestrian experience” in the North Fremont corridor.
Today, North Fremont Street looks much as it did then, with one notable exception – a rarely used bike lane now runs down the median, unconnected to any other cycling arteries.
Shake has no grandiose visions for the property – he’s just planning to make what’s already there better. He promises it will be something that the “neighborhood will be proud of.”