New Millennium Dawns for Historic L.A. Biltmore

Hotelier John Wilson purchased the venerable Biltmore hotel last year knowing that the downtown Los Angeles landmark had seen better days.

Guest rooms and public areas had begun to look frayed around the edges under a succession of owners and managers during the 1990s. Recession and riots scared off visitors from downtown altogether. Despite its historic grandeur, the Biltmore was no match for the often larger and more luxurious hotels of the Westside.

“It just felt that the hotel had been allowed to run down,” said Wilson, chief executive of London-based Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. “I realized that with the right amount of love and care we could go places.”

After a $10-million refurbishing, the newly christened Millennium Biltmore touts remodeled guest rooms, higher standards of service and promises of more improvements to come.

That kind of investment is essential if the hotel is to woo well-heeled travelers away from the Westside, and for its new owners to compete against much larger and better-known rivals in the top tier of the hotel business.

“Part of their whole mission is to streamline their image and create [a high-end] brand,” said Jim Butler, chairman of the hospitality group at Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro.

Though Millennium & Copthorne owns and manages more than 100 hotels in 13 countries, until recently it had a small presence in the U.S. hotel industry.

In a bid to enlarge its U.S. market share, Millennium & Copthorne early last year purchased Regal Hotels International Holdings Ltd. for $640 million. Hong Kong-based Regal had owned the Biltmore and nearly 30 other hotels in major U.S. cities.

The acquisition was part of the creation of the high-end Millennium brand--a name the company adopted from its stylish New York Millennium property--that Wilson wants to expand worldwide. In addition to the Biltmore, the Millennium chain now includes about two dozen properties, including the former Knickerbocker Hotel in Chicago and the Mayfair in London.

The Biltmore is the only Millennium property in California and will play a large role in shaping public opinion about the new brand, industry observers said. In a little more than a year, the company has spent about $70 million to refurbish many of the largest hotels acquired from Regal.

It’s not a widely known name, but “Millennium is starting to make inroads,” said hotel broker Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group.

Occupying almost an entire block, the Italian Renaissance-style Biltmore at Olive and 5th streets was the largest hotel west of Chicago when it opened to great fanfare in 1923. Its hand-painted ceilings, marble floors and towering columns have impressed generations of Angelenos.

Despite successive renovations during the 1970s and ‘80s, the Biltmore began to show its age again in the 1990s. “The guest rooms were really lacking,” said industry consultant Bruce Baltin of PKF Consulting.

Indeed, much of the money Millennium has spent on the Biltmore has been focused on remodeling its 683 guest rooms, which feature traditional decor and European-made furniture and accessories designed to keep the interior on par with rival hotels in Beverly Hills and Century City. Its room rates have been increased an average of $10.

“The extensive renovations of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel will reestablish us as the premier luxury hotel in downtown Los Angeles,” said hotel manager Gunther Zweimuller.

In addition, $2.5 million has been budgeted to overhaul the Biltmore Bowl, the hotel’s largest meeting space, which can accommodate a banquet for 1,000 guests. Hotel officials said the renovation will flatten the room for greater efficiency and flexibility, and add high-tech lighting and sound systems.

The remodeled Biltmore Bowl, which hosted Academy Awards ceremonies three times during the 1930s, will help the hotel capture a larger share of the lucrative meeting and banquet business, said Robert J. Morse, president of Millennium’s North American operations.

“We know we will get a lot of that back,” Morse said.

The Biltmore is unveiling its new look just as the hotel and travel business begins to slow down with the economy. In addition, a newly expanded Anaheim Convention Center is siphoning business from downtown Los Angeles.

The occupancy rate for major hotels downtown fell to 66.47% during the first quarter of the year from 72.33% in the same period last year, said Rick Frolich, analyst at PKF Consulting.

But industry observers and Millennium officials remain optimistic about the outlook for downtown hotels. With the exception of the Standard Hotel under construction, few new hotel rooms will be added to the downtown market over the next few years, limiting competition and keeping rates and profits healthy.

In addition, the opening of Staples Center, Disney Concert Hall and other amenities are expected to make downtown a more attractive destination.

And when it comes to grandeur and history, the Biltmore has few rivals, Wilson said.

“There is only one Biltmore.”