Luxury Hotel Ready to Open After 5-Year Wait
Five years after planning began, the $36-million Red Lion Hotel will open Tuesday as the first luxury hotel and social center for Glendale.
As befits its role, the 18-story inn will debut with a pre-opening party Monday night when 1,000 guests are expected to attend a $100-per-person benefit for the Glendale Symphony Orchestra Assn.
With 348 rooms, banquet and convention facilities, a ballroom, two restaurants and three lounges--including one on the roof--the hotel is designed to fill a void in Glendale as an activity center.
Since the closing six years ago of Pike’s Verdugo Oaks Restaurant, a longtime social center, local groups have had to schedule large functions in Pasadena, Burbank or elsewhere.
Redevelopment Director Jeanne Armstrong said the Red Lion will provide “greatly needed facilities” for area corporations and businesses and serve as an inducement for companies considering moving to Glendale.
The hotel is expected to eventually generate more than $20 million in annual taxable revenues and employ 350 people.
Located at 100 W. Glenoaks Blvd. in the downtown redevelopment zone, the project required covering the county-owned Verdugo Wash flood control channel with a concrete slab. The area has been landscaped and forms a park along Glenoaks in front of the hotel. Landscaping and other details were being completed this week.
Room rates are $125 to $145 a day. There are 10 one-bedroom suites. Parlor suites are priced at $350 a day and presidential suites $600. The stepped-back architecture of the hotel tower allows sweeping views from many rooms of downtown Los Angeles and the San Gabriel and Verdugo mountains.
General Manager Tim Bridwell said area residents are being offering an introductory $79 room rate during December.
“People in the community have been watching this project develop for several years,” he said. “Now we are offering a great opportunity for them to experience Glendale’s luxury hotel firsthand.”
Several major hotel chains had competed to develop the downtown property, including the Radisson Hotel and Sheraton corporations. After weeks of study, the City Council, which serves as the five-member Redevelopment Agency, selected Red Lion Hotels and Inns of Vancouver, Wash., which operates 52 properties in 10 western states.
The Red Lion chain paid the $36-million cost of building the hotel, Armstrong said. The city contributed about $22.5 million to the project, which included the cost of covering the flood channel, building an underground garage, and landscaping and widening streets around the project. The city expects to recover its costs from increased property and sales taxes and bed-tax revenues.
Armstrong said that because the hotel is near the flood control channel, county officials required a construction design capable of simultaneously withstanding a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and 100-year flood. “It is the most stable building in the city, probably the most stable building in Southern California,” Armstrong said.
Construction, which took more than two years, was marked by two accidents. In August, 1990, a worker was killed in a cave-in during drilling for footings. Another worker escaped with minor injuries after he was trapped for two hours in a second cave-in three months later. Investigations by Cal/OSHA concluded that negligence was not a factor in the accidents.
Monday’s benefit party, which will take place from 6 to 11 p.m., will be a private preview of the hotel. It will feature live music for dancing and food served in ballrooms and lounges. Tickets are available by contacting the symphony association at (818) 500-8720.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in front of the hotel.
