Five years after the last signs of action, a new operator will attempt to reopen the historic Trinity Auditorium in Downtown Los Angeles as a hotel.
On May 9, LuxUrban Hotels, Inc. announced that has signed a 15-year master lease agreement to operate the Trinity Hotel, which is located at 851 S. Grand Avenue. The hotel, which will operate under the "LuxUrban Ultra" brand features 179 guest rooms in a nine-story completed in 1914. LuxUrban's news release indicates that the hotel is ready to open.
“Downtown Los Angeles offers a wide array of cultural, entertainment, and business activities and the region’s improving hospitality market reflects the abundance of opportunities that this bustling commercial and residential hub provides," said LuxUrban chairman and chief executive officer Brian Ferdinand in a statement.
The Trinity Auditorium, alternatively known as the Embassy Hotel, was the location of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's debut in 1919. In subsequent years, it has been used as an annex and housing complex by USC, until coming into the ownership of the Chetrit family in the late 1990s.
For more than a decade, the Chetrits have sought to convert the property into a hotel. That effort initially stalled in 2014 due to a conflict between the property owner and the labor union Unite Here Local 11, which successfully blocked the family from obtaining alcohol permits for both the Trinity Auditorium. While the project was eventually able to move forward through permitting, it has remained closed to the public.
The conflict also extended to the Trinity's sister project, the Hotel Clark near Pershing Square - an establishment which the Chetrits have also sought to reopen for decades. Most recently, the Clark was slated to open its doors in September 2019. However, that date came and went without welcoming guests.
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