The process for putting the lucrative Bazaar del Mundo concessions contract up for bid has hit yet another snag.
Reports recently surfaced about a provision being added into a final draft of California’s $101 billion budget requiring a concessionaire of the Old Town tourist complex to sign a labor union agreement.
The development works against Diane Powers, who has operated the tourist complex for 30 years, having rebuilt it from a rundown motel site. It’s currently nonunion.
Bazaar del Mundo is the most profitable concession in California’s parks system. Its five restaurants and 16 shops had gross sales of $24 million in fiscal 1998-’99, and surpassed that figure last year, Powers said.
She has what critics have long labeled a “sweetheart” deal, paying the state rent of 7.3 percent of sales.
Powers now hopes the publicity could kill the provision. “It’s a strong possibility,” she said. For now, she’s taking a wait-and-see approach, Powers said.
“We just have to see what develops and how the budget language does end up and then everything hinges on that,” she said.
She heard about the new clause a few weeks ago. State Sen. Dede Alpert, D-Coronado, told Powers about it at a luncheon, she said.
Alpert was not available to comment by press time, nor was Carol Migden, the San Francisco assemblywoman who introduced the proposed provision.
Alpert told the San Diego Union-Tribune earlier this month that the policy should have been aired publicly.
While Powers paid an estimated $1.76 million in rent in ’99 for her gross sales of $24 million, other top concessions in the state parks system paid larger percentages.
The Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove had gross sales of $14.1 million in ’99 and paid the state a rent of $1.3 million, 8.6 percent its sales.
Hearst-San Simeon State Historic Park had gross sales of $4.1 million and paid rent of $1.46 million, from 26 percent of food sales and 50 percent of gift shop sales.
Last April, it was announced that the Bazaar del Mundo’s concessions contract would come up for bid for the first time since Powers’ has controlled it.
However, creating a request for proposal turned out to be particularly complicated, and Powers was informed last fall the state parks system would be extending her contract on a month-to-month basis.
The extension would likely last through the beginning of 2002, she was told.
Among the bidders will be Delaware North Cos. Inc., which is based in Buffalo, N.Y.
Delaware North operates concessions for the Asilomar Conference Center. The company has a union agreement for the property’s hotel and concessions.
Several months ago, Delaware North made an unsuccessful bid for the five-year concessions contract for the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
