Developer seeks to build hotel near Echo Park

Hoping to get in on Los Angeles’ rapid gentrification process, a developer is seeking city approval for a 185-room hotel in a presently undeveloped stretch of land between downtown LA and Echo Park.

Newport Beach-headquartered EKN Development Partners submitted plans Tuesday to the Planning Commission to demolish a two-story office building at 101-115 Glendale Boulevard, and replace it with a nine-story hotel. In order to build the hotel, city officials must rezone the land and begin permitting alcohol sales on the property.

The parcel lies on something of a no man’s land north of downtown, but EKN notes the site is “minutes from the Los Angeles Opera House and Disney Concert Hall” and that the project can, “shine new light on the rapidly gentrifying area of the city.”

The property is also one mile away from the Echo Park commercial corridor, and there are less than a handful of hotels within the land’s one-mile radius.

The hotel will be built across .8 acres and include 185-rooms including a rooftop bar, an open deck pool and a restaurant. EKN hopes to complete construction by the fall of 2022, according to the company’s website.

It’s unclear how much the hotel will cost to build, or who will design the project. Messages left with EKN on Wednesday were not immediately returned.

EKN was incorporated in 2012 and claims to have $60 million in developed and operating assets, plus $2.9 billion assets in the pipeline.

One possible wrinkle is that the developer does not presently own the land, according to the Los Angeles County Assessor’s office. An owner linked to Laguna Beach-headquartered Crown Acquisitions holds the spread after three separate acquisitions between 2015 and 2017 totaling $5.42 million.

Crown Acquisitions describes itself as acquiring rental properties. Messages left with the company Wednesday were not returned.