BLVD745, the L.A. boutique developer behind the Ace Hotel and the Soho House warehouse in Downtown L.A., is launching a new budget-hotel brand called Roadhouse + Junction. The company is planning to open its first Roadhouse property in 2018.
BLVD founder Jon Blanchard and his partner Nico Rusconi are in escrow to buy two prospective Roadhouse locations, Blanchard told The Real Deal. One is a $27 million site near the soon-to-open Los Angeles State Historic Park, nicknamed the Cornfield. The partners plan to spend an additional $18 million to build a 130-room hotel on the site.
The other deal is for an existing property in Silverlake. The partnership is slated to pay $23 million for the property and plow an additional $17 million into rehabilitating it.
Blanchard said he’s currently scouting locations for a third Roadhouse in Venice. Over the next three years, he hopes to expand the brand to 10 locations in Southern California, he said. Roadhouse is the company’s first in-house brand.
He declined to specify the exact addresses of the properties, pending closings. He also declined to identify BLVD’s partner on the project, a New York-based family office.
“We picked these areas as the launching locations for Roadhouse because the are both thriving communities, and we will provide a neighborhood-friendly social scene,” he said.
BLVD745 founder Jon Blanchard
He said that Roadhouse will have a mid-century motel design feel with American farmhouse furnishings.
“Each budget hotel will be designed with its specific community’s influence in mind. All with comfy mattresses, rain shower heads, food from local farms, a specialty cocktail program, and global wine list,” he said.
The neighborhood surrounding Los Angeles State Historic Park –a former Southern Pacific railway yard that has been under construction for two years– was once an underused industrial neighborhood, but a 2013 zoning change sought to revitalize the area with new residential development.
The new zoning was a draw for Blanchard and his partners, who expect the area to transform as a result.
“You will start seeing big movement with a tremendous amount of development in that area,” he said.