A four-star hotel specifically aimed at the millennial set will begin construction just north of L.A. Live in the first week of October, according to the team bringing the development to market.
Philip Powers of downtown equity firm Sun Capital and a developer of Cambria Hotel at L.A. Live, said the project is designed to appeal to millennials with its affordability and connectivity to transportation and the internet.
“There’s been quite a lot of activity with the new Intercontinental (Los Angeles Downtown) and the Park Hyatt coming on, and several others, but we’re really the only one that is, No. 1, affordable, which is important because the (Los Angeles) Convention Center needs affordable rooms, and this is oriented toward millennial business travelers,” Powers said.
The hotel will have to compete not only with large corporate hotels in the area, but also hip boutiques popular with millennials that have been on the rise.
Powers said the nightly rate for Cambria would be between about $220 and $240. That’s close to the current $251 a night rate listed at Hotels.com for the four-star Luxe City Center Hotel, across the street from L.A. Live at 1020 S. Figueroa St.
“Our goal is to really target not only business travelers but leisure travelers as well,” he said.
The 247-room Cambria is expected to open in the first quarter of 2019, according to the developers.
Brentwood’s Pacific Property Partners and Barry Beitler, a managing partner at the firm, are teaming up with Sun Capital to build the hotel. Sun and Rockville, Md.-based Choice Hotels partnered in 2015 to purchase the property, at 926 James M. Wood Blvd., for $14.5 million in an all-cash transaction.
The total project is expected to cost between $90 million and $100 million, the developers said.
Bruce Greenfield of Orange-based Architects Orange designed the hotel, which is expected to feature a rooftop swimming pool and a lobby lounge.
Creative Tenant
The new two-building Santa Monica Gateway creative office campus at 2834 Colorado Ave. in Santa Monica has a new entertainment tenant.
The space will be used to house operations for Starz Inc., an Englewood, Colo., media company that Santa Monica’s Lionsgate Entertainment acquired last year.
Jones Lang LaSalle announced it secured the 60,166-square-foot lease for the property – nearly half of its 134,000 square feet – built and owned by North Hollywood developer Colorado Creative Studios.
JLL’s team of Carl Muhlstein, Tom Cherry, Hayley Blockley and Nick Niemann represented Colorado Creative in the lease. Lionsgate was represented by James Travers and Lawson Martin of downtown’s Travers Cresa.
Terms of the deal were not released by JLL.
Muhlstein said tenants continue to prefer Santa Monica over neighboring submarkets because of amenities, transportation options and access to skilled labor.
“Lionsgate chose Santa Monica Gateway because of its proximity to its headquarters and other major media companies,” Muhlstein said in a statement. “The project is the ideal location for companies looking for space in a newly developed creative office campus in the heart of Silicon Beach.”
Colorado Creative completed development of Santa Monica Gateway in August within the Silicon Beach area of Santa Monica. The property is able to accommodate a variety of uses.
The property is a LEED-certified campus, featuring concrete, glass and metal structures above a three-level underground parking garage with 640 spaces.
Taken in Torrance
A 75,711-square-foot office property at 1899 Western Way in Torrance sold this month for $19 million, or $251 a square foot, according to an announcement from New York brokerage Newmark Knight Frank.
The building, which was built in 2004, is fully occupied by Unify Financial Credit Union, which is headquartered on the property and recently signed a 10-year lease.
NKF’s West Coast capital markets President Kevin Shannon, Executive Managing Director Ken White and Managing Director Scott Schumacher represented the seller, El Segundo’s Continental Development Corp. Continental acquired the property in December as part of a two-property portfolio, which included an office building at 14500 Aviation Blvd. in Hawthorne, with both at $260.78 a square foot.
The buyer, Miramar Property Group, was self-represented.
NKF’s Shannon said the property offered the buyer an ideal location in a desirable submarket with a solid long-term triple-net lease in place.
“The South Bay market continues to strengthen as tenants from other pricier Los Angeles markets seek an amenity-rich and easily accessible location,” he said in a statement.
The building is adjacent to the 116-acre former Toyota Motor Corp. campus, which is under contract with an investor that plans to redevelop the site.
Staff reporter Neil Nisperos can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8337.
