Glendale Agency OKs Initial Plans for Luxury Hotel

The Glendale Redevelopment Agency last week approved preliminary plans for a proposed luxury downtown hotel that could be larger than originally planned.

Red Lion Inns, the hotel chain based in Vancouver, Wash., that was selected from among several competitors by Glendale officials almost 2 years ago to build the downtown hotel, presented plans Tuesday for a 403-room, 20-story hotel tower and convention complex. The city’s plans call for a 350-room hotel.

City officials have worried that any increase in the size of the hotel, to be built north of the Ventura Freeway between Central Avenue and Brand Boulevard, may exacerbate traffic congestion downtown. Yet traffic consultants concluded that congestion is going to be so bad anyway that an increase in the number of rooms would have little added impact.

Although agency members voted 5 to 0 to accept conceptual plans, the action does not endorse the additional rooms proposed by the developer, said Susan Shick, deputy redevelopment director.