The Flamingo project involves a phased renovation of the guest rooms, event spaces and common areas, along with a new restaurant concept, Pugash said. “I will spend more time in my home country, Germany.”Īlso on the Flamingo renovation team are restaurateurs Anderson Pugash and Benson Wang, owners of Serious Leisure, which operates five restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. “On a personal level it was time to move on, since I ran basically a one-man show,” Ehret said in an email.

He declined to discuss details about the transaction, citing confidentiality. Ehret has retained a majority interest in the property. Yang acquired the Flamingo from Pierre Ehret, whose family has owned the Flamingo for over 40 years. He’s maximizing the concept at the Flamingo, whose huge pool has been a draw throughout its existence. When Yang took over and renovated The Sandman in Santa Rosa three years ago, he added a pool house bar to the hotel’s existing pool. And now they retracted that and said ‘no, that’s indefinite now,” said Yang, whose parents are scientists. “Last weekend, we opened up our lap pool, and then they said on June 19 they’re going to open up all pools. Sonoma County has vacillated, however, about when it will lift restrictions on pools, which has been a source of frustration for Yang, who is big on making the pool area the centerpiece of his hotels. It’s welcome news for Yang, who, with wife Rebecca, owns Yang Capital and Point Hospitality Group, the latter which oversees daily operations of the 10,000-acre property that has 170 rooms and 13,000 square feet of meeting space. Now, work on the property’s renovations is back on track, as Sonoma County’s hotels have been cleared to reopen as of June 19.

In 1996, the city of Santa Rosa declared the hotel a historical landmark. In its heyday, the hotel drew celebrities and wealthy world travelers to its oversized pool and courtyard. But like other hotel projects in the North Bay area, the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted progress on the $20 million project.īuilt in 1957, the Flamingo Hotel was designed by architect George Bernard Russell, the same architect as the original Las Vegas Flamingo, according to the Flamingo’s website. Hotel investor Stephen Yang and his partners have been working on renovating the Flamingo Resort since acquiring the landmark Santa Rosa property in January 2019.

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