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A historic building under renovation in downtown Livermore may soon be used as an event center, following permission granted to its property owner by the Livermore City Council at Monday’s regular meeting.
The structure, located at the corner of South Livermore Avenue and Second Street, formerly housed the Southwestern Bell Company.
Under a purchasing agreement with the city in 2021, Michael Messinger was set to flip the building into a restaurant with a bar, according to a staff report prepared by Livermore associate planner Jennifer Ackerman.
Messinger later expressed concern over filling a 250-seat restaurant on a nightly basis, amid a highly populated restaurant market downtown Livermore, Ackerman said at the Nov. 10 meeting. Meanwhile, Messinger noticed the absence of an upscale event center in the area.
In August, Messinger proposed amending the purchase and sale agreement with the city to allow for the building’s use as an event center — proposed as being named the Blanco Event Center.
Following the council’s unanimous approval — absent Council member Ben Barrientos — the Livermore Planning Commission is set this winter to consider approving a conditional use permit for the building’s use as an event center.
Despite approval from the council, the building is not precluded from being used as a restaurant.
“I’m looking forward to this,” Mayor John Marchand said during Monday’s meeting. “I think it will be a good addition to the downtown.”
Regardless of the building’s future use, the exterior architecture will remain the same as that approved by the planning commission in September 2022.
Additionally, circulation and parking considerations will be made at the planning commission level, Ackerman explained during the meeting.
The event center would be open only outside of peak traffic hours, Ackerman said.
Messinger also intends to have shuttle bus services to the event center and is attempting to gain additional parking spaces through negotiations with nearby land owners.
Also anticipated for downtown is the L Street Parking Garage, which will provide additional parking for the area, Ackerman said.
