Downtown offices may re-emerge as budget hotel rooms
By JACQUELINE LEE Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN — Most of the tenants and nearby residents of a City Landmark building here know something is in the works for the Wilshire Boulevard offices, they’re just not sure what exactly.
At Lucy’s Lunchbox, which is situated inside the historic building at 710 Wilshire Blvd., one employee reported being aware of redevelopment plans, but not notified as to when the construction would begin.
That’s because plans to build an affordable hotel and mixed-use space at the existing building site and its adjacent parking lot are still in preliminary stages, according to Howard Laks Architects, designers of the new space.
“I was looking for a good project,” property owner Alex Gorby said. “We’d like to work with the people of the city. I’d like to contact groups that have an interest like I do, in preserving and renovating the building — people who live there, neighbors and tenants, who see the property every day, and see where we can go with it.”
Gorby, a real estate investor, owns the 10,000-square-foot property that is home to the Santa Monica Professional Building, where about 50 offices and retail stores currently reside. The building sits at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Seventh Street. Gorby also owns the adjacent 37,500-square-foot parking lot.
“His interest to preserve the existing Landmark structure, in conjunction with a desired need for a mid-priced hotel on Lincoln and Wilshire boulevards, will provide a valuable gateway to the downtown district,” Laks said.
Laks has reportedly created a scaled model of the landmark building, which will now be “used to develop massing and compatibility studies for the proposed structure to the south.” The project is now in its conceptual design phase.
The proposed project consists of renovating the existing Landmark building to include about 44 guest rooms, ground-floor retail space and meeting rooms. The new structure would be built on what is now the parking lot, to include 250 mid-priced guest rooms, multi-family housing, commercial tenant space, ground-floor retail and a pedestrian plaza, according to Laks.
“The building to the south will be designed to be respectful to the existing Landmark structure and compatible with the neighborhood context,” Laks said.
The project team — Gorby, Howard Laks Architects and attorney Michael Klein — started planning for the project in September of last year, but are not yet ready to submit designs to City Council or the Landmarks and Planning commissions for approval.
“Certainly, within a year,” said Gorby. “Sooner than later would be much better.”
According to a map of the city’s hotels on the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau Web site, there are no other hotels within the 710 Wilshire Blvd. building’s immediate vicinity.
“It should be very good if we can bring in 300 people a day or a night,” Gorby said. “It should be very positive for the area.”
The City of Santa Monica Landmarks Commission designated the building a City Landmark in October 2005, but Gorby was interested in preserving and renovating the building even before the designation.
“When they designated the building as a City Landmark, I was bothered by it,” Gorby explained. “The building itself is a very nice building and I never intended anything else than to keep the building in good condition. It never really occurred to me in one way or another to do anything else but maintain the building’s condition.”
After having acquired the building in 1970s, the building has been renovated several times, with the most prominent renovation occurring after the 1994 earthquake.
“The building was red-tagged so we vacated the building,” Gorby said. “It took two years in redoing the building. All the foundations are new. All the plumbing are new. The electrical and the elevators, too. Everything about the building is new except for the building.”
The parking lot that Gorby owns is south of the building, with roughly 130 parking spots available for tenants and customers of the building. The lot is also used as public parking for the surrounding area. The project team plans to incorporate four levels of underground parking as part of the new structure, Gorby said.
Although there will be significant changes to his property, the team is currently working to preserve the architecture of the building while fulfilling Gorby’s vision, Laks said.
“I have several other buildings in the same style. It’s an exciting building,” Gorby said. “This one was built in the 1930s. It was a medical building before we bought the property.”
There are less than 25 hotels that cost less than $125 listed on the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau Web site.
“The rooms will be designed for a business type of person,” Gorby said. “Definitely priced mid-to-lower price. One, we’re not on the beach. And also, it’s the size of the rooms that determines that. Right now, the Santa Monica market is very high occupancy. Across the country, they probably have the highest occupancy.
“It’s a very exciting area to work in.” Gorby, however, will not be operating the hotel independently.
“This is going to be a very big hotel,” he said.“It would take a professional marketing company to run the hotel. The major hotels that exist in Santa Monica, for example.”
As for the current tenants and neighboring retail stores, Gorby said it’s too early to answer whether a deal can be worked out with everyone presently there, but he’d like to give each an option to remain. He said that will be determined by what the city allows him to build.
Laks said that “input from the community will be encouraged” once the project team and property owner learn more about their development options.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 3, 2006. Read the original PDF.