Retail Center Proposed for Ambassador Site
The Donald Trump-led group that owns the defunct Ambassador Hotel in the heart of Los Angeles has unveiled plans for a 1-million-square-foot retail and entertainment development on the site of the long-shuttered resort.
Ambassador Associates intends to raze the historic structures on the 23-acre property fronting Wilshire Boulevard and replace them with a three-level “power center” consisting of large discount retailers, a supermarket, theater complex and extensive underground parking.
Although the latest redevelopment plan is a fraction of the size of the mixed-use project--which included a 125-story office tower--the Trump-led group proposed a decade ago during better economic times, the plans will face substantial scrutiny during a lengthy approval process. Among the key parties expected to help shape the project are the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency; local residents and business owners; City Councilman Nate Holden, whose district includes the hotel site; and ultimately the full City Council.
Holden expressed enthusiasm Friday about plans to redevelop the Ambassador site, where the Los Angeles Unified School District had proposed building a high school three years after the hotel closed in 1987.
“The moment they talked about putting a school there, it virtually killed the Wilshire corridor,” Holden said.
“We need some type of development project there, and I applaud the Trump group or anyone” who would take the financial risk, Holden said. He estimated the project’s cost at $200 million. “It would be wonderful for the city and the area.”
On Thursday, the property owners presented preliminary plans for the Ambassador site to CRA representatives, various city agencies and Holden’s office, said CRA Senior Planner Ileana Liel. The participants discussed steps necessary to forge a development agreement, including the preparation of an environmental impact report, a draft of which probably won’t be available for public review for at least several months.
While stressing that property owners and city development officials are in “the earliest stages of discussions” about the project, Roy Willis, a CRA deputy administrator working on mid-Wilshire/Koreatown redevelopment, said he is not enthusiastic about a power center format and would prefer a lower-scale commercial and entertainment center akin to the Old Pasadena district.
Although the agency will be “hard-nosed” about creating an appropriate development, Willis said officials would generally support movie theaters and big-box discount retailers “if it can be demonstrated that that’s what the community wants and needs.”
Ted Slaught, a senior managing director with commercial real estate brokerage Charles Dunn Co. who has been working with the Trump group for nearly a decade, said plans for an urban retail project have been well-received by several large prospective tenants he declined to identify. “It won’t be Macy’s,” he quipped, referring to the contrast between high-end regional malls and the new wave of power centers developed nationwide over the last few years.
So-called power centers are typically located on large sites in suburban locations and tend to feature heavy-discount retailers that specialize in one product such as electronics or home furnishings.
Slaught said the concept should work well in a more compact multilevel configuration in the Wilshire Center area, which, he added, is underserved in terms of major retailers and movie theaters and boasts 1 million residents within three miles of the Ambassador site.
One potential opponent is the Los Angeles Conservancy, which advocates preservation of structures that are architecturally, historically or culturally significant. Linda Dishman, the Conservancy’s executive director, said she’d like to work with the developers to preserve one of the few remaining resort hotels that reflect the 1920s-era lifestyle when “wintering” in Los Angeles was a popular pursuit.
