29-Story Wilshire-Gayley Hotel

Yours truly received a phone call yesterday from a reporter about a 29-story hotel project on the site of the old Hollywood video store, long closed, on the northwest corner of Wilshire and Gayley (adjacent to the UCLA parking lot).

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.