Beverly Hills City Council gives final sign off to Cheval Blanc hotel on Rodeo Drive

More than two years after announcing plans for a posh hotel on Rodeo Drive, French conglomerate LVMH has secured approvals for the Cheval Blanc Beverly Hills.

The project, which saw its development agreement approved earlier this week by the Beverly Hills City Council , would rise from a property along the south side of little Santa Monica Boulevard between Rodeo and Beverly Drives, replacing a former Brooks Brothers retail store and the Paley Center for Media. Plans call for an approximately 220,000-square-foot building featuring up to 115 guest rooms with restaurant space, and a private club.

The Cheval Blanc - designed by New York-based architect Peter Marino is designing the Cheval Blanc with Los Angeles-based Gruen Associates serving as architect of record - would be a mid-rise structure ranging from four to nine stories in height, reaching an architectural apex of 115 feet. Plans call for a series of upper level terraces and setbacks which would be used to create guest amenity spaces, outdoor dining areas, and swimming pools. The building would be clad in limestone.

Images also show that public art would also be incorporated into the design of the hotel, highlighted by a proposed sculpture planned in conjunction and pedestrian plaza at the corner of Rodeo and Santa Monica.

Per an environmental study circulated by the City of Beverly Hills reiterates an earlier approximated timeline for the project, stating that the Cheval Blanc would be built over a roughly 38-month period commencing concluding in 2026.

Per a staff report to the City Council, rooms at the Cheval Blanc are expected to cost an average daily rate of $1,925. That includes entry-level rooms which would start at approximately $1,167 per night to as much as $20,600 for the penthouse. The development agreement will require LVMH to make a $26 million general public benefits payment to the City of Beverly Hills, as well as a $2 million payment for arts and cultural purposes. Likewise, a 5 percent surcharge will be applied to all hotel rooms in addition to the standard transient occupancy tax of 14 percent.

Under terms of the agreement, LVMH is required to commence construction of the project within one year of obtaining final approval - meaning the resolution of any lawsuit or referendum relating to the Cheval Blanc. After that point, the hotel would need to be completed within five years. LVMH also has options for four one-year extensions of its approvals with an additional payment of $1 million each time. Should the developer fail to complete the project, the agreement stipulates that LVMH would pay the City of Beverly Hills $52 million - including forfeiture of the $26 million public benefits payment and $2 million arts fee, plus $24 million in liquidated damages.

Plans for the Cheval Blanc, which would be the first U.S. outpost for the brand, originated in 2018, which Paris-based LVMH reportedly purchased the former Brooks Brothers building for $245 million. LVMH, the parent company of Louis Vuitton, currently operates five Cheval Blanc locations.

“We are extraordinarily excited to reach this milestone and to embark on creating America’s first Cheval Blanc as an iconic new anchor for the north end of Rodeo Drive,” said LVMH, Inc.'s U.s. chairman and chief executive Anish Melwani in a news release. “We wish to thank Mayor [Lili] Bosse and the City Council, City staff, and the entire community for their partnership and collaboration to help shape this legacy investment in Beverly Hills.”

The Cheval Blanc is one of several new hotels planned in Beverly Hills, including an adaptive reuse project that would transform the landmarked Gibraltar Square office complex and a ground-up development slated for South Lasky Drive.

The Cheval Blanc is not the only hotel LVMH is looking to open in the Los Angeles area. In Benedict Canyon, the company is partnering with developer Gary Safady on a contentious project which would bring a 58-room Bulgari Hotel to a 33-acre hillside property.

• Cheval Blanc Beverly Hills (Urbanize LA)