For the second time in two weeks, San Jose preservationists have lost what they see as a battle to protect the city’s historic landmarks from new developments that put them in jeopardy.

The San Jose City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the construction of a 24-story tower that will add 274 hotel rooms to the 86-room Four Points by Sheraton — historically known as the Montgomery Hotel in the heart of downtown San Jose and just a few blocks from the city’s McEnery Convention Center.

Although the hotel addition does not include any physical changes to the Montgomery Hotel at 211 S. First St, the tower will be connected to the historic building’s facade by a glass atrium and will hover over a portion of the old hotel building in a cantilever structure.

“It’s a great day for downtown San Jose because the city is desperate to have added hotel rooms to support the convention center, business activity and leisure travel in the downtown area,” Erik Schoennauer, a land use consultant representing the site’s owner and developer Khana Enterprises, LTD, said following the meeting.

The project’s approval, which has been in the works for more than three years, comes just two weeks after the council approved the construction of a new, 19-story hotel on the corner of North Almaden Boulevard and West Santa Clara Street — towering over the historic Hotel De Anza. Opponents worry that the new hotel that will be built mere feet from the De Anza will lead to the financial demise of the nearly 90-year-old, Art Deco-style hotel.

Passionate residents and preservationists see the back-to-back decisions as a pattern by city leaders of disrespecting some of the city’s last remaining historic landmarks in the name of building up the city’s downtown skyline.

“I do agree that we do need to build higher, we need to figure out how to get more density near BART and high-speed rail and we probably need more hotel rooms downtown, but let’s focus on the areas where there are available land and places that don’t impact historic buildings,” Andre Luthard, president of the Preservation Action Council of San José, said in an interview.

Originally constructed in 1911, the Montgomery Hotel is one of the city’s remaining iconic buildings, listed on the California Register of Historic Places. Still, the Montgomery Hotel barely eluded destruction in the late 90’s when the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose wanted to expand its footprint.

Hoping to preserve the historic hotel for years to come, the city used redevelopment funds in 2000 to move the hotel roughly 180 feet to accommodate the construction of a 13-story annex to the iconic Fairmont Hotel.

The Montgomery was redeveloped for $8.5 million and then reopened in 2004 as the Four Points by Sheraton, which currently uses the .58-acre site next door where the tower will be constructed as an outdoor patio.

In November 2019, the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission voted 4-1 to recommend that the city deny the historic preservation permit required to move forward with the project due to the project’s size and design. One week later, the city’s planning director disregarded the recommendation and approved the project.

The Preservation Action Council of San Jose appealed the planning director’s approval of the project, arguing that the environmental impact report did not thoroughly address project alternatives and that the project design did not conform to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, an agency affiliated with the National Register of Historic Places. Historic consultants hired by the city, however, disagreed with the reasons for the appeal and found that it did conform to city and state regulations.

Since first submitting an application for the hotel in 2016, the developer made multiple design modifications to address concerns from residents and city officials by making it more compatible with the Montgomery Hotel.

The new tower will not only add 274 rooms to the historic Montgomery Hotel but new amenities such as a rooftop pool. The expansion will also create 140 new jobs at the hotel, according to Schoennauer.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Councilmember Raul Peralez thanked the current Montgomery Hotel site owner and new developer for preserving their business operations, in addition to the “beauty and historical importance” of the historic Montgomery Hotel.

“It is, in my mind, raising the bar for the type of development and architecture that we had in our city,” Peralez said.

There are 11 hotels with a little over 2,600 rooms currently operating in downtown San Jose. About a half dozens hotels are under construction or planned for downtown San Jose. Earlier this month, Hyatt House opened a 165-room hotel near the Mineta San Jose International Airport at 2105 N First St. The city council is expected to consider a 120-room hotel at 292 Stockton Ave. in February.