A 12-acre hillside in Santa Rosa's Fountaingrove neighborhood that sat scarred for nine years is about to welcome guests again. Radiate Hospitality is building the Round Barn Hotel at 3555 Round Barn Blvd., on the same ground where the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country burned to the ground during the Tubbs Fire, and the developer's first phase is expected to open by the end of 2026 with 108 guest rooms, a restaurant, bar, outdoor pool deck, fitness center and a separate lobby building.
According to The Press Democrat, developer Perry Patel expects the hotel to open in late November or early December, and the project is projected to create up to 45 jobs. Radiate Hospitality's own project page describes a modern farmhouse-style property with the same end-of-2026 opening window, noting the new hotel sits on the grounds of the former Hilton and the historic Round Barn that once guarded the city's northern gateway for 118 years before it, too, burned.
The Hilton Sonoma Wine Country, built in the 1980s on a site where the Sheraton Round Barn Inn had gone up in 1984, had 250 rooms and employed 130 workers before flames destroyed it in the early morning hours of October 9, 2017, per the Press Democrat's reporting. The Round Barn Hotel's first phase will offer 55% fewer rooms than the hotel it replaces, reflecting both a smaller footprint and a different market the project is chasing.
A Gathering Place Built for a Different Era
Patel told the Press Democrat he sees the hotel as a gathering place for locals and visitors alike, and said he believes the property fills a niche for elevated boutique lodging that Santa Rosa has lacked. The pool house carries an octagonal design nodding to the site's architectural history, and the hotel is slated to eventually add live music at its bar and restaurant, though it won't offer large indoor event spaces in this first phase — instead leaning on landscaped grounds for outdoor gatherings.
The hotel is expected to be affiliated with Marriott's Tribute Portfolio, a collection built around independent properties with custom designs and local character, the Press Democrat reported. Public permitting records show the project clearing a local hurdle over the summer: a zoning administrator approved a minor design review permit on August 8, 2025, allowing construction of a new lobby building with landscaping at the address, according to citizenportal.ai. Applicants emphasized fire-resistant materials and ongoing landscape maintenance as part of that approval, the outlet noted — a detail with obvious resonance on a site destroyed by wildfire.
From a Family Silk Mill Project to a Second Act in Fountaingrove
Radiate Hospitality is the Palo Alto-based, family-run company with a Hampton Inn in Petaluma, and its broader portfolio includes a 195-room Crowne Plaza near Stanford University with meeting spaces and wedding venues. The Press Democrat reports the company's portfolio also includes a Hampton Inn in Petaluma and a Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto, and that Patel and his family rebranded their earlier company, BPR Properties, as Radiate Hospitality in 2022.
The Round Barn project is being completed in two phases, and Patel said there's no set timeline yet for starting the second one. An earlier proposal described in a Press Democrat report called for a boutique hotel with 158 rooms on just more than 11 acres, with a later phase adding 50 guest rooms along the property's western edge; Radiate's own project materials describe that second phase bringing multiple dining outlets, a wine-tasting room, outdoor recreation facilities and indoor-outdoor event venues. The Press Democrat's more recent reporting describes a revised second-phase vision of 35 cottages and additional amenities across the remaining property, with Patel describing the cottages as modular units meant to bring the kind of luxury lodging found in Sonoma and Napa valleys to Santa Rosa — comparing the concept to the standalone cottages at Carneros Resort and Spa. Patel said the second phase's design, layout and amenities remain undecided.
Why Santa Rosa Is Betting on Hospitality
The stakes of rebuilding lodging capacity in Santa Rosa trace directly back to the Tubbs Fire, which caused 24 deaths in Sonoma County and damaged or destroyed thousands of homes along with at least seven regional lodging properties, according to the Press Democrat. The October 2017 fire destroyed a large Hilton hotel in Santa Rosa.
Santa Rosa Metro Chamber CEO Ananda Sweet said hospitality remains important to the city's economy, and that new hotels like Round Barn increase regional competitiveness and sales tax revenue, per the Press Democrat's report. Visit Santa Rosa vice president of marketing and communications Janelle Meyers said higher-end hotels such as this one should help raise the city's average daily room rate and overall tax revenues. The same report states Santa Rosa is the leading economic contributor among the region's incorporated cities in tourism, ahead of Petaluma, Sonoma and Healdsburg, with the sector employing 4,400 people and generating $464 million in spending and $44.6 million in state and local tax revenue in 2025, according to the 2026 annual tourism report cited by the Press Democrat.
Even with Round Barn's arrival, the Press Democrat notes Santa Rosa still needs more meeting space to attract larger conventions — a gap this hotel's first phase, without big indoor event venues, won't fully close. Still, for a hillside that spent nine years as a reminder of one of Sonoma County's worst nights, a reopening by year's end marks a tangible return to form for Fountaingrove.
