The first U.S. outpost of the exclusive London creative social club co-founded by Microsoft Corp. billionaire Paul Allen and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics is scheduled to open in Hollywood next year.
The Hospital Club is planning to open the outpost, h.Club LA, in April 2018 at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, replacing SBE’s 57-room Redbury Hotel, according to h.Club LA spokeswoman Clara Spahr.
Allen, who co-founded his club in a former hospital in London’s Covent Garden neighborhood in 2004, bought the Hollywood property in June for $41 million through his Seattle investment company Vulcan Inc. from Bethesda, Md., real estate investment trust Pebblebrook Hotel Trust.
The club’s anticipated opening comes as the neighborhood is booming, with Netflix Inc. and Viacom Inc. both opening offices nearby.
“L.A.’s position as a hub of art, culture, and creativity makes it the ideal location for the h.Club’s first global extension,” Allen said in a statement. “The Hospital Club is a place where innovators from across the creative disciplines come together to collaborate, push boundaries, and cultivate big ideas. H.Club LA will continue this legacy, bringing together a unique location and a truly special experience to the L.A. community.”
The Hollywood club is expected to be similar to the London location, serving as a creative co-working space with extra amenities on five floors designed to host and showcase creativity, the company said in a press release. It also will include a rooftop restaurant, pool deck, tea room, bars, gym, music studio, screening room, and a live performance space.
A public 36-room hotel also will be opened.
The Redbury, which opened in 2010, will close in July, Spahr said. SBE’s Middle Eastern restaurant Cleo, which shares a home with the hotel, will remain after h.Club LA opens, joining three other restaurants planned there.
New Lead Man
A new frontman is taking the stage at Rock & Brews, a midsize rock ‘n’ roll-themed restaurant chain based in Manhattan Beach.
The company hired Michael Sullivan, former director of emerging brands at chain Buffalo Wild Wings, as chief executive last month.
Twenty-unit Rock & Brews had been without a chief executive since April, when Mike Reynolds left for Southeast fast-food restaurant chain Mrs. Winner’s Chicken & Biscuits. Rock & Brews was co-founded in 2012 by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of the band Kiss, South Bay hotelier Mike Zislis, and rock industry veterans Dave and Dell Furano.
Zislis had been running the company since Reynolds’ departure.
Zislis said he expects Sullivan, who helped Buffalo Wild Wings grow to more than 1,200 locations from 150, will help expand the franchise.
“He took them from 150 to the promised land and we’re hoping he’ll do the same for us,” he said.
Rock & Brews’ first outpost, located in El Segundo, generated $10 million in its first year of business, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
Something Brewing
Artisanal Brewers Collective, headed by L.A. craft brewer Tony Yanow, said it bought four bars this month for an undisclosed price from downtown’s Acme Hospitality Group.
Yanow’s group plans to beef up beer and vegetarian offerings at the downtown bars, which include the Library Bar, Spring Street Bar, Sixth Street Tavern, and Beelman’s Pub, according to a statement.
Yanow has been busy after selling his craft beer brand Golden Road Brewing, which was reportedly Los Angeles County’s largest craft brewery at the time of the deal, for an undisclosed amount to Anheuser-Busch in September 2015. Besides owning his pubs Mohawk Bend in Echo Park and Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank, Yanow is working on a restaurant and brewery combination on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks that is expected to open this year, according to Eater LA.
Hot on Hotels
An Arts District real estate developer likes the area around Dodger Stadium for the first two locations of its new midprice hotel chain.
BLVD745 is in escrow for a $27 million property by Los Angeles State Historic Park and a $23 million property with an existing building in Silver Lake. The company has not yet received approval from the city, but assuming the deal moves forward, the hotels, which BLVD745 said would be priced around $200 a night, would provide accommodations to an area growing in popularity.
The company, which said it was involved in the restoration of the ACE Hotel downtown, plans to spend $18 million to construct a building from the ground up on the lot near the park and $17 million to renovate the Silver Lake building.
The project was first reported by CurbedLA.
Staff reporter Caroline Anderson can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8329.
