bc-dining-brimstone-padre exterior (copy)

The Padre Hotel at 1702 18th St.

Cash flow trouble hit just as the overhaul of the Padre Hotel was finishing up in 2009, with several million dollars of its owners' money on the line and an $8.1 million construction loan covering a year's worth of redevelopment work.

The project fell $1.8 million short of the money needed to outfit what was supposed to be the nicest boutique hotel in the San Joaquin Valley. Tapped out with private lenders, the owners turned to the city of Bakersfield, which quickly identified a federal loan program for redevelopment projects that would help prevent slums or blight.