Beverly Hills : Hotel Renovation Delayed

The company that manages the Beverly Hills Hotel has asked the city to put off consideration of its plans to remodel the aging facility.

In a letter to the city’s Planning Commission, an attorney for Sajahtera Inc. said that “ownership of the hotel is currently reassessing the particulars of the proposed renovation. We will notify you as soon as the ownership’s reassessment is complete.”

Sajahtera is a subsidiary of the Brunei Investment Agency, an agency of the government of Brunei, a wealthy, oil-producing sultanate on the island of Borneo in the East Indies.

The project, which would have required city approval for zoning variances and other changes, was supposed to have gone before the Planning Commission at its Wednesday meeting.

Instead, staff members set it for consideration on May 27. The project calls for a total revamping of the renowned hotel, which was built in 1912.

It has come under criticism from neighbors concerned about traffic and parking problems. Also, some residents expressed opposition to the project because of Brunei’s anti-Israel record at the United Nations.

Sajahtera bought the hotel from financier Marvin Davis in 1987.