Beverly Hilton Plans Hotel and Condo Expansion

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. October 14, 2008

BEVERLY HILLS, CA, December 12, 2005. The Beverly Hilton Hotel has commissioned Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, LLC, to develop a plan that will add regular hotel rooms, condo hotel units, and pure condo residences to the site of the existing 570-room hotel.

The initial draft of the plan will be completed by next month, when the hotel plans to submit it to the Beverly Hills planning board, according to Theodore Kahan, president of Oasis West Realty, asset manager of the property on behalf of Beverly Hilton owner Alagem Capital Group.

Plans for the nine-acre site are likely to include construction of a tower that will accommodate a mix of additional hotel rooms, condo hotel units that would participate in the hotel inventory, and pure condominium residences that would be owner occupied. Owners would have access to hotel services, ranging from room service to spa and fitness facilities. A final decision has not yet been made on the number of each kind of unit that will be submitted to the planning board for approval.

The site currently includes an above-ground parking garage and other low-rise structures that could be demolished to allow further space for new construction.

Kahan also declined to speculate as to when the proposed project might break ground or be ready to open. Like other high-visibility destinations, Beverly Hills has high barriers to entry that include a dearth of land available for development and aggressive zoning restrictions.

The Beverly Hilton opened in 1955 and was originally owned by Conrad Hilton. It includes more than 60,000 square feet of event space. The hotel's International Ballroom is famous as the site of the annual Golden Globe Awards. In 2003, OasisWest Realty on behalf of Alagem Capital Group acquired the hotel from entertainer Merv Griffin, who had acquired it in 1987.

On acquiring the property, Oasis West began a two-part $80 million renovation. Part one primarily entailed a guestroom renovation. Phase two, which is scheduled to be completed in the spring of next year, will focus on the ballrooms and other meeting space, new lobby bar and restaurant, and expanded spa and fitness facilities.

Among its other lodging and convention center projects, New York-based Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects has designed the W Hotel & Residences in Hoboken, NJ, which is currently under construction, as well as the already-completed Euro Disney convention center and hotel in Marne-La-Vallee, France, outside Paris, and the Walt Disney World Convention Center in Orlando.