Los Angeles is poised for its fifth consecutive record-setting year for visitors. And with 2015 potentially becoming a record year for hotel-room demand in the L.A. area as well, developers are addressing the need by planning new and redeveloped properties throughout the region. Read on for an overview of the latest openings and get a sneak peek at the exciting new projects that will add to L.A.’s growing list of great hotels.
Hotel Covell opened in Los Feliz in February 2015. Located above Bar Covell, the “sip and stay” property has five uniquely decorated suites based on the life of fictional character George Covell, including Midwestern U.S., Paris and New York-themed rooms.
Budget-boutique chainlet Mama Shelter opened its first U.S. property in July 2015. The 70-room hotel is located in central Hollywood. The hotelier, of which Sofitel parent AccorHotels has a minority stake, has properties in Paris, Marseille and Istanbul.
The Bicycle Casino, which opened in 1984 and is a stop on the World Poker Tour, is scheduled to open a 99-room hotel on Dec. 1, 2015. Located in Bell Gardens, the seven-story hotel will include 29 luxury suites as well as the Bike Brewery restaurant, a pool deck with cabanas, a spa and 15,000 square feet of meeting space. Reservations can be made at the hotel website.
Aloft El Segundo will be L.A.'s first hotel under Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ boutique lifestyle brand. Located about two miles south of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the hotel features 246 rooms, Aloft’s xyz bar and 14,000 square feet of meeting space.
In February 2016, Hilton Worldwide will add Glendale’s first Hampton Inn & Suites upper-midscale select-service properties in Los Angeles County. Hampton Inn & Suites Glendale will have 94 rooms when it opens on Brand Boulevard.
New York-based Chetrit Group is redeveloping a 113-year-old building on Downtown’s Hill Street between Pershing Square and Angels Flight into a boutique property called Hotel Clark. The 347-room hotel will fly the Dazzler badge under Latin American boutique hotelier Esplendor Hotels.
Esplendor Hoteles, Latin America’s largest boutique-hotel chain, will add its first two U.S. Esplendor-branded properties in April 2016. L.A.’s version will be redeveloped out of the old Trinity Auditorium on Downtown’s Grand Avenue. The 100-year-old building will have 183 rooms when it opens by next April.
Scheduled for April 2016, a 112-room property under Hilton Worldwide’s Hampton Inn & Suites brand will open in Hollywood on Vine Street near Santa Monica Boulevard.
Hilton Worldwide’s Hilton Garden Inn upscale select-service brand will add the 133-room Hilton Garden Inn El Monte on Valley Boulevard in June 2016.
Marriott International’s Residence Inn upscale select-service badge debuts in Pasadena proper in June 2016. Residence Inn Pasadena Old Town will have 144 rooms and will be located on Pasadena’s Fair Oaks Avenue, three blocks north of Old Town’s Colorado Boulevard.
In July 2016, Burbank’s first Hilton Garden Inn will open on San Fernando Boulevard with 209 rooms.
In August 2016, the 171-room Hampton Inn & Suites LAX El Segundo will debut on Sepulveda Boulevard near the south border of Los Angeles International Airport.
Choice Hotels International’s upscale Cambria badge will enter the Los Angeles area with the opening of Cambria El Segundo LAX. Slated to open October 2016, the hotel will be developed by Fillmore Hospitality and feature 152 rooms and a bistro called Social Circle. The hotel will be located about two miles south of Los Angeles International Airport.
Sydell Group will introduce its Freehand hotel/hostel brand to Los Angeles in October 2016. The Freehand, which has properties in Miami Beach and Chicago and includes private rooms as well as hostel accommodations, will be built at the site of the Commercial Exchange Building at 8th and Olive Streets. The property will include 200 rooms when it opens.
China-based Greenland Group is developing Metropolis, a mixed-use project located just east of the Harbor Freeway in Downtown L.A. Metropolis will include a 350-room hotel under InterContinental Hotels Group’s Hotel Indigo brand.
The Dream Hotels lifestyle brand is slated to open along Hollywood’s “Cahuenga Corridor.” The local outpost of Hampshire Hotels’ luxury-boutique badge will have 182 rooms.
Two select-service hotels are slated to open next March near what will be the western terminus of Metro Rail’s Expo Line in Santa Monica. Marriott’s Courtyard by Marriott Santa Monica will have 134 rooms. Hilton Worldwide’s Hampton Inn & Suites Santa Monica will have 143 rooms. Both hotels will be near the intersection of Colorado Avenue and Fifth Street, about four blocks east of the landmark Santa Monica Pier.
The InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown will be part of the tallest U.S. building west of the Mississippi River when the Wilshire Grand Center opens in 2017. The 900-room hotel will include a “sky lobby” on the 70th floor. The $1.1 billion project, which is being developed by Korean Air and Hanjin Group, will also include 400,000 square feet of offices and 45,000 square feet of retail space. When completed, Wilshire Grand Center will be about 80 feet taller than the U.S. Bank Tower.
Sydell Group, which opened The Line Hotel in Koreatown in 2014, will open the Los Angeles outpost of New York’s NoMad Hotel in July 2017. The NoMad will be redeveloped out of Downtown’s Giannini Place, which was built in 1923 as the headquarters for Bank of Italy (which became Bank of America). The 12-story hotel will have about 250 rooms as well as a rooftop pool.
In March 2015, AEG announced a 755-room expansion of the JW Marriott L.A. LIVE. Combined, the new project, along with the existing JW Marriott L.A. LIVE and The Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles will contain 1,756 rooms and over 200,000 square feet of function space, making it the second largest hotel in California. The new Gensler-designed, 38-story hotel tower will be directly connected to the existing 878-room JW Marriott L.A. LIVE and 123-room Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles hotels by a bridge across Olympic Boulevard. In addition to two levels of below-grade parking and ground level retail space, a second-floor amenity deck will include a restaurant, bar/lounge, fitness center, executive lounge and pool area with cabanas. The new hotel rooms and facilities are scheduled to open in 2018.
The first U.S. West Coast property under Marriott International and Ian Schrager’s Edition lifestyle brand will open on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip in March 2018. Developed by the Witkoff Group and New Valley, the hotel will have 148 rooms.
