Los Angeles Times
10/24/16

Park Hyatt Hotel Is Set to Join the Downtown L.A. Building Boom
By Andrew Khouri

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-downtown-hyatt-20161024-snap-story.html

The $1-billion Oceanwide Plaza development, under construction in downtown Los Angeles, will include a luxury Park Hyatt hotel, underscoring the resurgence of the city center.

The Hyatt Hotels Corp. brand is in just 38 locations worldwide and currently has no locations in Los Angeles. Its arrival across from Staples Center could help the Oceanwide condo and hotel project stand out in a neighborhood awash in construction.

Nearby, Chinese developer Greenland Group is underway on another $1-billion condo and hotel project known as Metropolis that will include a 350-room Hotel Indigo, a hip boutique brand operated by InterContinental Hotels Group.

Other big projects include a 900-room InterContinental hotel inside the nearly completed Wilshire Grand skyscraper and a proposal for a W Hotel that would replace the Luxe City Center Hotel across from L.A. Live.

“Every major hotel brand needs to have a presence downtown,” said Alan X. Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group. “Fifteen to 20 years ago people were exiting downtown. It’s sort of night and day.”

Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings and Hyatt announced their plans Monday.

The 184-room Park Hyatt hotel, with 34 suites, is set to open in early 2019 along with the rest of the mixed-use project.

In addition to the hotel, the three-tower development will include roughly 500 condos and nearly 170,000 square feet of retail space. There will also be a massive LED screen wrapping the west-facing side of the project overlooking Figueroa Street.

Thomas Feng, chief executive of the Oceanwide subsidiary building the project, said the development will deliver “a distinct lifestyle that is both urban in design and serene in experience.”

Hyatt, which previously had a Park Hyatt in Century City, did not reveal room rates for its Oceanwide property. But Reay said prices are likely to be on par with L.A. Live’s Ritz-Carlton, where rooms top $400 a night.

Oceanwide Plaza is one of several mega-projects underway from Chinese builders, including the Metropolis project down the block.

Since 2014, Chinese developers have been involved in at least seven of 18 land deals downtown in excess of $19 million, according to real estate firm Transwestern.

That includes the $104 million that developer Shenzhen Hazens paid in 2014 to purchase the 2.5-acre site, where it plans to build a W Hotel and condos.