Global Courant 2023-05-22 17:00:45
In a city whose name is synonymous with exclusivity and wealth, the future of a planned ultra-opulent hotel will soon be decided by the most democratic means: elections.
Beverly Hills voters will decide Tuesday whether to withdraw city council approval for a hotel project by French multibillionaire Bernard Arnault and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, his luxury conglomerate.
To some, the battle for the Cheval Blanc hotel in Beverly Hills is a David and Goliath tale, pitting a small group of residents worried about overdevelopment against a union advocating for affordable housing. the richest person in the world.
Others see it as a story of an outside group — Unite Here Local 11 in this case — interfering in the city’s affairs and potentially stripping Beverly Hills of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue over the next three decades. The politically powerful union, which represents hospitality workers across the region, gathered the local signatures needed to force the issue to a vote.
Either way, all parties seem to agree that the result will have lasting effects on a 5.7 square mile city where about 31,000 residents go to bed at night and many more people use homes, offices, shops, restaurants during the day. and operate hotels.
Beverly Hills already has 16 hotels, seven of which are considered luxury, the city said. But the Cheval Blanc would aspire to be the brightest star in a sparkling galaxy, promising an exceptionally high-end experience for its wealthy clientele.
It would be the first North American property for LVMH’s relatively new chain, which currently has five hotels, including a ski-in and ski-out chalet in the French Alps and a St. Barts hotel where the entire property is lightly scented . with a custom Guerlain fragrance.
“I think it’s fair to say that this is the only city in the world that could have made this deal,” said Henry Finkelstein, the outside attorney who represented Beverly Hills in the development negotiations, at a City Council meeting in November. “If you look at pretty much any other place, particularly in the Los Angeles metro area, they would pay subsidies. And here we are demanding premiums.”
The Beverly Hills Cheval Blanc, approved last year by the City Council and the City Planning Commission after a lengthy public process, would also reshape the edge of one of the most famous shopping strips in the world.
When most people think of Rodeo Drive, they tend to focus on a specific part of the three-mile street: a three-block business district that doubles as an international symbol of luxury retail, where the streets are lined with palm trees and vast sums of capital.
The hotel – replete with a members’ club, restaurants, shops and a spa – would rise in the northernmost of those three blocks, adjacent to Little Santa Monica Boulevard.
After raising numerous objections during the planning process, Unite Here Local 11 began collect signatures to challenge the project shortly after the development agreement and zoning change were approved in November.
Triggering a referendum election in Beverly Hills requires the signatures of 10% of registered voters, meaning only 2,193 signatures were needed at the time.
Union representatives argue that cities like Beverly Hills often change development rules to facilitate building commercial luxury projects, but don’t always do so for housing. They also vociferously object to the development agreement not earmarking specific money for affordable housing.
Unite Here Local 11 carries enormous political weight nine miles east, at Los Angeles City Hall, where it has pushed legislation and where one of its own, former organizer Hugo Soto-Martínez, now sits on the City Council. The Union Local has that too been instrumental in recent policy in West Hollywood, but its influence is relatively burgeoning in Beverly Hills City Hall.
A model of the proposed Cheval Blanc hotel in Beverly Hills is on display at the project’s campaign headquarters. In the background, bankers are calling residents about the upcoming elections.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
The city’s development agreement with LVMH calls for the company to contribute $26 million to the city’s general fund, in addition to $2 million for arts and cultural programs. The city would also receive an additional 5% surcharge on top of the regular 14% temporary residence tax.
The proposed hotel complex, designed by star architect Peter Marino, would replace a number of buildings, including the Richard Meier-designed site formerly occupied by the Paley Center for Media on North Beverly Drive around the corner from Rodeo. The hotel would range from four stories to a partial ninth-floor penthouse, higher than current zoning allows, according to the final environmental impact statement.
According to the city’s analysis, the hotel is expected to funnel about $725 million into the city’s coffers over the next 30 years, most of which will come from the combined 19% bed tax.
It’s money that Councilwoman Lili Bosse, who was mayor when the project came before council last year, and other advocates see as key to securing Beverly Hills’ long-term future as a place synonymous with the good life .
“I think what people need to understand is the quality of life of Beverly Hills, in terms of our three minute response time from our police department… the best public schools, the best quality of life, being a safe city, a beautiful city – that revenue mostly comes from business,” Bosse said.
But Councilman John Mirisch, an iconoclastic former movie executive and fourth-generation Beverly Hills resident who cast the only “no” vote against the project, hardly sees the Cheval Blanc as a good deal for the city.
“We are effectively doubling the value of their land,” said Mirisch, referring to the zoning change approved by the council, which will allow the developer to more than double the square footage he could otherwise build on the site. “And the city negotiated, from my perspective, a measly $28 million.”
Bernard Arnault, whose company is behind the Beverly Hills project, is attending a 2022 fashion show in Paris.
(Vianney Le Caer / Invision/Associated Press)
Mirisch said he voted against the project because of his criticism of the deal, along with concerns that the hotel was too big for the area.
Since then, Mirisch said, he has been shocked by the amount of money LVMH spent on the special election campaign.
By early May, the LVMH-funded pro-hotel campaign had spent nearly $2.8 million, according to campaign statements submitted to the City Clerk.
Among the opponents, the Political Action Committee of Local 11 spent nearly $86,000 in the same period, and Residents against overdevelopment — a grassroots group led by former city council candidate Darian Bojeaux — spent just over $16,000.
LVMH reimburses Beverly Hills for the cost of the special election, estimated at approximately $870,000, according to the city.
Boosters see the relationship between Cheval Blanc and the street on which it will be housed as symbiotic, with hotel guests drawn to the location doubling as an ideal customer base for the neighboring luxury stores. Money will generate money, with a small portion of each transaction going directly to the city treasury.
Proponents also say Cheval Blanc’s lavish spectacle would anchor the north end of the shopping corridor, protecting it from the weary fate that has befallen several other once-popular shopping districts. (LVMH’s investment in Rodeo goes far beyond just the Cheval Blanc site: The conglomerate has 15 stores on the street or in the wider Business Triangle and owns several of those properties, a spokesman said.)
Pedestrians walk past the former Brooks Brothers building at the intersection of Rodeo Drive and Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The Cheval Blanc hotel project would include this building.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
But Bojeaux, a semi-retired lawyer, said she fears the size of the hotel could drastically change her “village.”
Still, the 36-year-old Beverly Hills resident said she had almost given up organizing against the Cheval Blanc when Unite Here started collecting signatures for the referendum, saying: “We probably couldn’t have done it alone. ”
“Whatever their interests, it was really great for a lot of us, because they organized the petition for the referendum,” said Bojeaux, who characterized the referendum election as “something from my dreams”.
Housing — particularly the ability to find affordable housing near workplaces — is the main issue for the union and its members, said Unite Here Local 11 co-chair Kurt Petersen.
“Beverly Hills is like the worst of the worst because there’s no affordable housing nearby,” Petersen said, adding that Local 11 has more than a thousand members who work in Beverly Hills, but very few can work in the city. living.
There are 157 affordable homes in the city, but all but seven are part of a dedicated senior housing facility, according to deputy city manager Keith Sterling, who said another 50 homes are in the pipeline.
Beverly Hills voters are asked two voting questions: whether they agree to the zoning change that will allow the hotel to be built, and whether they agree to the development agreement.
If either measure fails, the project cannot proceed.
Anish Melwani, chairman and chief executive of LVMH’s North American subsidiary, said if voters reverse approval of the project, the company has no plans to return it to council after already undergoing a rigorous, years-long process. run through.
“We have no interest in building a hotel in a community that doesn’t want us there. Vox populi, vox deiright?” Melwani said, citing a Latin phrase meaning the voice of the people is the voice of God, and said the company would return the properties to stores.
