Condo owners push back on hotel plan near LA Convention Center

Owners of condominiums next to a proposed hotel near the LA Convention Center have asked the city to scrap the project.

Homeowners associations in neighboring high-rise buildings have appealed plans by the El Segundo-based Domyan Group to build an eight-story, 112-room hotel at 1130 S. Hope St., Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

Home owners in the Evo and Luma towers next to the proposed project have appealed to the Central Area Planning Commission, saying that the proposed hotel violates local zoning rules and the Downtown Design Guide.

They also argue the project might have unanticipated environmental impacts.

City planning staff, finding no evidence to support the claims of the homeowners associations, recommended denying the appeal.

Plans to redevelop the 1130 Hope Street site date back nine years, when a different group of developers sought to convert a three-story building that once stood on the property into a 44-room boutique hotel.

After entitlements for that project lapsed in 2018, the early 20th century building was demolished. Domyan Group, which bought the 7,770 square-foot lot for $6.5 million, launched plans for an 11-story, 144-room hotel.

But the Bryan Domyan-led company downsized its proposal last year to feature an eight-story, 47,000-square-foot hotel with 112 guest rooms and 528 square feet of ground-floor retail, about the size of a small cafe or store.

Bucilla Group Architecture, based in Irvine, designed the hotel, which would include parking for 23 cars at the base of the building, with another 21 spaces offsite.

The proposed hotel is a few blocks east of the Los Angeles Convention Center Crypto.com arena. The nearby Los Angeles Convention Center, and the adjacent J.W. Marriott Hotel, have filed joint plans for a $1 billion expansion.

The hotel market in Los Angeles has rebounded from its pandemic doldrums, when bookings last fall were 90 percent of 2019 levels. Across California, 1,250 hotels were on the drawing boards in 2021, compared to 1,245 in 2020.

At the same time, hotel transactions in California hit an all-time record, with investors spending $9.9 billion on hotels in 2021 — four times the total dollar amount spent in 2020. Last year, 510 hotels traded hands, beating the previous record set in 2014, when about 400 hotels sold. Just under 300 hotels were traded in 2020.

[Urbanize Los Angeles] – Dana Bartholomew

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