This project has been in the works for some time. For example, you can read a description of it in a 2009 filing with the City of LA at http://cityplanning.lacity.org/eir/WilshireGayleyProject/DEIR/issues/I._Executive_Summary.pdf
At that time, i.e., in 2009, the developer was describing it as either a mixed condo/hotel project or just a condo project. A more recent news article, however, terms it a “hotel.”
There was reference to this project in the FAQ list on the UCLA hotel/conference center project posted by the Faculty Center and dated 2/14/11. See http://facultycenter.ucla.edu/FAQs.htm (Scroll to the bottom.) But yours truly assumed the idea back then was more hypothetical than real. Apparently, it is real enough; bulldozers removed the Hollywood video building in May although the developer says project construction is not yet slated to begin. See http://la.curbed.com/archives/2011/05/westwood_hollywood_video_gets_boot_stern_tower_coming_soon.php
Below is a description of the project from CurbedLA as of 11/19/2010. A picture of the proposed structure can be seen in the rendition above.
In what would bring a 29-story hotel to Westwood, the proposed Robert AM Stern-designed Wilshire Gayley is moving closer to breaking ground. With many locals coming out to speak in favor of the development at a Tuesday Planning and Land Use Committee meeting, the subcommittee approved the supergraphic-blocking project, and now developer Kambiz Hekmat is in negotiations with the city for an agreement to waive the bed tax on the hotel for a certain time period, according to Christopher Koontz, Planning Deputy for Councilman Koretz…
Full article at: http://la.curbed.com/archives/2010/11/wilshire_gayley_likely_a_hotel_looks_to_break.php
The construction of a major new hotel in Westwood adding to the room capacity of the hotels already in the general UCLA area has obvious (negative) implications for the fiscal feasibility of a UCLA-built hotel/conference center.
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