Beny Alagem wants to combine two condo projects near the Waldorf Astoria Hotel

Hotelier Beny Alagem wants to combine two already-approved condo projects near the under-construction Waldorf Astoria hotel into one 26-story tower designed by Robert A.M. Stern, the Beverly Hills Courier reports.

The proposal would amend the Beverly Hilton Revitalization Plan, which was approved by the Beverly Hills City Council in 2008, after 19 public hearings and a referendum. That plan approved the new Waldorf Astoria Hotel, now under construction at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards, as well as two luxury residential buildings along Santa Monica and Wilshire totaling 110 condos.

The number of condos would stay the same under Alagem’s new plan.They’d just be vertical, at a density that often causes a ruckus in Beverly Hills. Next to the tower, there would be a garden.

Alagem told the Beverly Hills Courier the new proposal came from feedback from parents and neighbors at El Rodeo School “who wanted to find a way to avoid having a residential building on Wilshire so close to the neighborhood.” The new plan, he explained, creates the garden in place of the project that would have been on Wilshire as a buffer.

Alagem filed paperwork with the city of Beverly Hills to begin the process of putting the “Beverly Hills Garden & Open Space Initiative” on the Nov. 8 ballot. [Beverly Hills Courier] – Hannah Miet