Relevant’s latest in Hollywood, the Selma Wilcox hotel, gets go-ahead despite objections

LA City Council rejected appeals from labor union and community group about potential adverse impact of 114-key hotel on area

Relevant Group Managing Partner Richard Heyman and a rendering of the Selma Wilcox Hotel
Relevant Group Managing Partner Richard Heyman and a rendering of the Selma Wilcox Hotel

Relevant Group is three for three in Hollywood.

The Los Angeles City Council this week approved the Hollywood developer’s plan for a 114-key hotel at Selma and Wilcox avenue, Curbed reported.

Called the Selma Wilcox, it will be the third of four Relevant hotel projects under development near the intersection. The decision was unanimous and included the denial of appeals against the project by four groups.

Those organizations included petitioners United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles — a community organization — and the labor union Unite Here Local 11. Both groups raised concerns that the city hadn’t properly studied the impact the hotel’s construction would have on the neighborhood along with the sale of alcohol.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

They also accused the city of allowing Relevant and other developers to effectively build an entertainment district with a series of smaller development projects, but failing to take into consideration the cumulative impact of those projects.

Relevant plans to have four independently branded hotels built within a roughly two-block radius over the next few years. It has already completed the Dream Hotel, is building the Tommie Hotel and last year secured construction financing for the 190-room Thompson Hotel.

Last month, it revealed plans to convert the Citizen News building across the street from the Selma Wilcox and Dream hotels into a 36,6000-square-foot restaurant and event space.

Relevant Group likely would have had a harder time if it proposed those together as a megaproject. Relevant isn’t the only developer building there. Restaurateur Adolfo Suaya wants to build the 134-key Whisky Hotel on a parking lot on Selma Avenue near Hollywood Boulevard. [Curbed]Dennis Lynch