Six-year-old plans to build a new hotel tower in the Arts District have finally cleared the finish line.

At its meeting on October 24, the Los Angeles City Council voted to approved a proposal from property owners Ralph Ziman and Maria Greenshields-Ziman, who have sought since 2017 to redevelop a site located at 2057 E. 7th Street. The project, named "The Rendon," would bring a new 15-story building to the northwest corner of 7th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, expanding upon the existing three-story building of the same name. Plans call for 103 guest rooms as well as nearly 16,000 square feet of commercial uses, which would consist of an art gallery, a cafe, a restaurant, and a bar.

View looking northwest from 7th and Santa FeONEHOUSE

Construction of the new hotel would be coupled with the proposed rehabilitation of El Sol, an aging residential hotel at 719-725 E. 5th Street, as 42 units of affordable housing. As the Rendon is currently designated as affordable housing, the recreation of those units at a nearby site would allow the project to comply with the requirements of the Wiggins Settlement Agreement, which limits the loss of SRO and affordable housing units within the Downtown area.

Omgivning is designing the project, which would keep in place the existing Rendon, a 1914 structure named for its former manager Ada Rendon. New construction would be located to the north on what is now a surface parking lot,  consisting of a white concrete tower rising 172 feet in height. Amenity decks and commercial uses are proposed for the tower's fourth floor, upper level, and rooftop.

While the hotel and affordable housing projects were initially faced with appeals from Unite Here Local 11 and Creed LA, the former a union representing hotel workers and the latter a coalition of building trades unions, both organizations submitted letters to the City Council prior to the hearing indicating a withdrawal of their appeals, citing new agreements reached with the Zimans. The appeals had alleged unstudied environmental impacts associated with both projects.

Santa Fe Avenue elevationONEHOUSE

Though it would be one of only a small number of hotels in the Arts District, the Rendon development in modest when compared to other larger projects in the works near the intersection of 7th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, including mixed-use developments from Onni Group and Hines which are slated for nearby sites on Violet Street, and a Bjarke Ingels-designed tower complex planned along the L.A. River.

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