Beverly Hills : Luxury Hotel to Be Built

Construction of a new luxury hotel in Beverly Hills will begin this fall, the developer announced this week.

The $100-million, three-story, 200-room Belvedere hotel will be built on a 2.2-acre lot at what is called little Santa Monica Boulevard and Lasky Drive, just south of Wilshire Boulevard. The project is expected to be completed in early 1990, according to a spokesman for the developer, Probity International Corp. of Los Angeles.

The Peninsula Group, owners and managers of the Hong Kong Peninsula Hotel, will manage the hotel. Rates for the 200 rooms, including 72 suites and 16 villas, will range between $240 and $2,000 a night.

L. W. (Pete) Kempf, executive vice president and general manager of Probity, said the City Council approved the project in 1986, but the hotel is only now being developed because Probity was arranging its financing and looking for the proper management company to run the hotel.

In 1984, a voter referendum forced a proposed hotel across the street from the Beverly Wilshire Hotel to eventually be built outside the city limits. Residents had complained that the hotel would exacerbate traffic problems.