On Thursday, the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual installation dinner, at which outgoing chair Ron Davis will be
honored and incoming chair Ellis O’Connor will be installed.

The theme of the event, which will be held at the Miramar Hotel, is “Catering to Business.”

As it happens, O’Connor, who was General Manager of the Miramar Hotel until recently, is now “part of the MSD Hospitality Team as Asset Manager/Owner’s Representative overseeing MSD Capital portfolio of prominent hospitality assets,” that includes two hotels in Hawaii and the Miramar. O’Connor is also chair of the Santa Monica Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Some months ago, the Miramar, which is owned by Ocean Avenue L.P., which is owned by MSD Capital L.L.C., which is owned by billionaire Michael Dell, proposed demolishing everything on its Ocean Avenue site – but a portion of the Pacific building and the landmark Moreton Bay fig tree, and replacing it with a complex that, at 556,000 square feet, is twice the size of the existing buildings and several stories taller, and considerably more intrusive.

To virtually no one’s surprise, some alleged “community leaders” praised the proposal and wore badges that proclaimed them “Friends of the Miramar,” but more people objected to the proposal. Their badges simply said, “STOP.”

Then, the Chamber honored the Miramar with a major Sustainability award, despite the fact that it had just proposed unsustaining itself and destabilizing its neighborhood.

Over the weekend, Wilmont, a neighborhood organization finally imploded over the question, and had the distinction of being the first casualty of the Battle of the Miramar. .

Now the Chamber is handing its top job to a Miramar/MSD Capital officer.

What’s next? Miramar baseball caps? Yard signs? Complimentary golf carts? Valet parking throughout the adjacent neighborhood? A Miramar slate on the City Council ballot? Jerry Rubin engaging in one of his famous fruit juice fasts, vowing to hug the landmark Moreton Bay Fig Tree until someone devises a win-win solution.