Florida Firm Proposes Extended-Stay Hotel

A second extended-stay hotel has been proposed for Ventura Boulevard.

The newest proposal, on a long-vacant parcel of land across from Taft High, would have more than 200 rooms available for business people staying an average of two weeks at a time.

Florida-based Extended Stay America, which has four hotels in Southern California, expects to serve businesses in Warner Center. The company has just begun the bureaucratic process with the city to build the hotel.

The project would have two, four-story buildings, with 88 units in one building and 125 units in the other, and 233 parking spaces on surface and subterranean lots.

City officials said because the site is now zoned to accommodate little more than an office building with a parking lot, the approval process for a hotel will probably be a long one.

The first hurdle will be gaining a partial zoning change on the property, on the north side of Ventura Boulevard between Winnetka Avenue and Del Moreno Drive, as well as a conditional-use permit and specific-plan amendment.

“This is not necessarily the simplest piece of land to develop,” said Linda Bernhardt, planning deputy for city Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who represents the area.

She added that the zoning designation and the area’s specific plan may be reasons the site has stood empty for years.

An Extended Stay America real estate manager said the company expects to get approval from the city and the support of the community for the project without many problems.

If all goes as developers hope, there soon will be two hotels built to serve business travelers in Warner Center.

Homestead Village also has applied to build a hotel on a Ventura Boulevard site just a few miles west of the Extended Stay project, and officials from both hotel chains have said that competition is not a concern for them. There is enough demand, they said, for many hotels.