LOS ANGELES—Demand for more and more hotel rooms keeps growing in Downtown Los Angeles from both business and leisure travelers. A joint venture between The Kor Group and Stork/Alma Development Group has broken ground on the Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel, a 148-room lifestyle hotel near the convention center that is looking to capture that demand. The project was announced last year, and since, the developers have only seen the demand in the market grow. It is scheduled for completion in Spring 2018.

“The Downtown L.A. hotel market is thriving, and it's doing so for a couple of reasons. First off, it's always been a strong corporate market with 30 million square feet of occupied office space, which is a market size almost as big as West LA, Santa Monica, Century City, and Beverly Hills combined,” Brian De Lowe, president and co-founder of Proper Hospitality and partner at The Kor Group,” tells GlobeSt.com. “Also, now more than ever, corporate and leisure travelers alike actually want to stay downtown when traveling to LA, thanks to an expanding amount of unparalleled restaurants, museums, and cultural activities. Finally, and perhaps most notably, is that the Los Angeles Convention Center is planning to expand by nearly 300,000 square feet, which will create an immense increase in demand for hotels in the vicinity. In the past, there weren't many hotel options within two miles of the convention center. Our property is situated only a half mile away from the convention center.”

In addition to the central location, the building site added appeal to the project. The developers are using the adaptive reuse ordinance to reposition for former and historic Case Building into the hotel. The Kor Group is very familiar renovating historic projects. “Much like for our debut property, the Hollywood Proper Residences, that opened its doors this past summer, the location of Downtown L.A. Proper was critical,” says De Lowe. “Proper Hospitality seeks out emerging neighborhoods within culturally rich cities (just as our creative-minded, well-traveled guests do), and we provide a high-end, elevated hospitality experience in those locations for our customers. So when we discovered this building nearly three years ago, we knew we'd found the perfect fit. Downtown LA Proper Hotel will help connect the booming Broadway District with the Fashion District, the Historic Core, LA Live and the Convention Center.”
The Downtown L.A. Proper will be a high-end lifestyle project that is highly amenitized. In addition to leisure and business travelers, the hotel will also attract locals. “Success to us is when we create a hotel that becomes an elevated cultural hub for the neighborhood that local residents are proud of. At all of our properties you'll find luxurious amenities, thoughtful design, unrivaled service and cultural programming,” says De Lowe. Interestingly enough, Downtown L.A. Proper was originally built in the 1920s as a private club for industry, so there's a distinctive mix of spaces including a basketball court and indoor swimming pool.” Designed by architect Omgivning and interior designer Kelly Wearstler is designing, the hotel will have public spaces as well as private amenities for guests. The public spaces will include ground floor restaurants and a rooftop with a restaurant, bar and swimming pool.

The joint venture is funding the project through EB5 Capital, Bank of the Ozarks, and Calmwater Capital.

Instant Insights /

There Is Huge Demand for Hotels in DTLA

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