A local investment firm this week filed plans to build a 168-key Courtyard Marriott hotel near the University of Southern California’s main campus in Exposition Park, as real estate investors increasingly turn to opportunities near college campuses.
Orion Capital — through its property management firm Orion Housing — filed plans for the construction at 3685 S. Vermont Ave., property records show. The filing with City Planning includes 4,300 square feet of ground-floor retail space, less than the 7,000 square feet originally proposed along with the hotel last year.
The 33,000-square-foot lot had once been earmarked by Los Angeles for a 114-unit affordable housing complex. When that plan fell through, the City Council in April approved the agreement with Orion Capital for the Marriott, on the former site of the Bethune Library. The property is along the western border of USC’s campus. That Council vote last spring came on the heels of a report from the Economic & Workforce Development Department, which recommended the city sell the vacant plot to the firm.
The final plan for the hotel shaves one room off of last year’s Council-approved proposal.