The Renaissance Montura Hotel has a new owner, a new name and shortly it will have a new look.
The 499-room hotel, which until recently was called the Renaissance Los Angeles Airport Hotel, will undergo its second renovation in two years. This time, $3 million will be spent to update banquet and meeting space, one of the property’s two restaurants, the lobby and the lobby’s lounge.
“It is really a very complete process,” said Gregory Lehman, the hotel’s general manager. Much of the Renaissance’s 18,000 square feet of meeting space and two ballrooms haven’t been redone since the hotel opened in 1991.
The interior of the 85-seat Library Steakhouse will be enhanced, but the fare will remain the same. The hotel’s second restaurant, the 25-seat Conservatory, won’t be extensively refurbished, although it will become the 96 Street Bistro this fall, when it will begin serving California cuisine.
Last year, Chicago-based Walton Street Capital LLC bought the hotel from Washington, D.C.-based CTF Hotel Holding Inc. in a nearly $600 million, eight-hotel deal. That came as the hotel was wrapping up a $10 million makeover of its rooms, corridors, fitness facilities and public space.
“This owner has a set of fresh eyes, and they want to improve this hotel,” Lehman said. One of Walton Street’s first moves was to cut the word “airport” from the property’s name. The intent is to take away any stigma the hotel might have from an association with the airport and the area around LAX.
“We felt that having airport in our name limited us in a sense. People have preconceived notions about the quality of an airport hotel,” Lehman said. Anyway, he added, if guests need some clue where the hotel is located they should look at the address: it’s on Airport Boulevard.
The name change is intended to help attract group events, which Lehman explained often avoid properties known as airport hotels. Already, he said the Renaissance is doing better with groups. Those bookings are up to 35 percent of the hotel’s business, above the usual 20 percent.
Like other hotels throughout L.A. County, the Renaissance is seeing increases in its room price and occupancy rate. According to Lehman, the hotel’s corporate rate is in the range of $199 to $229, an increase of about $30 compared to the same time last year. Occupancy rate is over 83 percent, up 10 points from last year.
Lehman said the renovation work would be planned so as to minimize disruption in the meeting rooms and restaurants.
“We have every reason to believe that summer looks to be strong as well as the third and fourth quarters,” he said.
Sour Note
A defunct Miami musical instrument retailer has accused Guitar Center Inc. of coercing suppliers to stop selling to the competitor, eventually putting it out of business.
The Westlake Village-based company and its chief executive, Martin Albertson, are named in a Florida lawsuit as well as various suppliers, including Yamaha Corp. of America, Korg U.S.A. Inc. and Electrovoice. The retailer, Ace Pro Sound and Recording LLC, alleges the defendants violated federal racketeering, antitrust, unfair trade practices, and civil conspiracy laws, among others.
In court documents, Ace Pro Sound claims Guitar Center convinced vendors not to sell to Ace Pro during 2001 and early 2002 by telling them Guitar Center would cease buying products from them if they did. As a result, Ace Pro said it had to shut down in 2002 and lost profits in excess of $15 million.
Guitar Center responded in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the “lawsuit is without merit.” However, the company acknowledged “the costs and expenses incurred by us to defend this lawsuit could adversely impact our financial condition.”
Ace Pro Sound is asking for at least $45 million in damages, plus attorney fees. The retailer is also seeking to make the lawsuit a class action with other competitors of Guitar Center.
Fuel Dollars
A particularly lucrative Hilton Hotel Corp. tax break is safe.
The U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee has voted down a measure that would eliminate a tax credit for synthetic fuel produced from coal. The credit, provided for in Section 29 of the tax code, grew out of the 1970s energy crisis.
Since that time, corporations have boosted production of synthetic fuel to make use of the tax credit. Hilton is one of those corporations, and the Beverly Hills-based hotel company acquired a 24 percent minority interest in a synthetic fuel facility for around $32 million in 2004.
The facility has operated at a loss since Hilton’s purchase: the company’s share of that loss was approximately $17 million last year and $6 million the prior year. Still, the tax credit was about $23 million in 2005 and $9 million in 2004, with the benefit to Hilton’s net income totaling $6 million and $3 million in those years, respectively, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Across the country, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, estimates that corporations have saved as much as $4 billion from the tax credit annually. Doggett introduced the bill to dump the tax credit.
Hilton isn’t the only hotel company to make use of the credit: Marriott International Inc. has reduced its total tax liability by $558 million and dropped its total effective tax rate to under 5 percent from 36.5 percent since 2001, according to information compiled by Doggett.
*Staff reporter Rachel Brown can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 224, or at
[email protected]
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