Following a sale of the property, Denihan Hospitality's
James brand will not operate a West Hollywood hotel that was slated to open
this spring.
Starwood Capital is in escrow to acquire the site from Los Angeles-based developer CIM
Group, and Starwood's eco-luxe 1 Hotels will operate the hotel, West Hollywood city manager Paul Arevalo said.
"We will not be introducing The James Hotels to Los
Angeles at this time," the brand posted on its website. "As often
happens in the real estate business, the property owner has decided to sell the
property and as a result, a different operator will run the hotel."
Arevalo didn't specify an opening
date for the 286-room hotel, though he said escrow was slated to close by early
July and that the changeover wouldn't cause "a significant delay."
"It's actually in improvement for us," Arevalo
said. "One, it's a higher-caliber hotel. And two, it's part of an international
reservations system that will help network West Hollywood hotels better from a
marketing perspective."
With views of the Los Angeles Basin, the hotel is located at
the corner of Sunset and La Cienega boulevards and is the centerpiece to a
mixed-use project that's considered the largest new development since West
Hollywood was incorporated in 1984. The project, originally called Sunset
Millennium, was approved by West Hollywood's city council in 1999, but
financing issues have delayed the project.
Los Angeles-based CIM acquired the group of properties for
the mixed-use site in 2011 and began construction in 2013. Denihan's James
brand said it would brand and operate the hotel the following year.
1 Hotels has properties in Miami and Manhattan, and opened
its Brooklyn hotel in February.