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Hotelier gains Council member approval for 125-room hotel in Pico Union
San Gabriel-based hotel operator Tauan Chen owns the half-acre site
A San Gabriel-based hotelier already has the blessing of a Downtown Council member to build a 125-room hotel on W. Pico Boulevard — and that’s before he even files for the project with City Planning.
Council member Gil Cedillo of the 1st District filed a motion Friday for the department to consider the necessary zone changes for the hotel project at 2268 W. Pico Boulevard, Urbanize first reported.
The half-acre site is owned by an entity connected to developer Tauan Chen, who owns a Holiday Express Inn in Westlake. Chen is also behind a proposed 100-key hotel project at 2005 W. James M. Wood Boulevard in South Westlake, for which he filed plans in February.
The San Gabriel developer acquired the Pico Union property — a parking lot and a low retail structure — for $4.4 million last August, according to property records.
The project would “enhance the immediate neighborhood and surrounding community by providing amenities on the ground floor, such as a restaurant and meeting space, as well as much needed reasonably priced hotel rooms west of the 110 Freeway serving visitors to the Convention Center,” Cedillo wrote in his motion.
Koreatown restaurateur Chul Heay Shin is also planning a hotel nearby — a 200-room complex with a collection of restaurants and bars at 1543 W. Olympic Boulevard.