A proposed $2-billion development flanking the iconic Beverly Hilton hotel faces a key hurdle on April 7, when the Beverly Hills Planning Commission is scheduled to give its first review of the project.

Botanical gardensDBOX for Alagem Capital

One Beverly Hills, planned by Beverly Hilton owner Alagem Capital, would rise from roughly 17.5 acres of land at located at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards.  The project, slated for land that was once home to a posh Robinsons-May department store, calls for the construction of a pair of high-rise buildings containing 303 condominiums, a new hotel featuring 42 suites and 37 branded residences, and a new pavilion featuring 35,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.  Plans also call for an underground parking garage with capacity for more than 2,100 vehicles.

Architect Norman Foster is designing the mixed-use complex as part of a team which also includes executive architect Gensler and landscape architecture firm Rios.  Plans call for a series of curvilinear buildings set among roughly eight acres of park-like open space.  Walking paths and botanical gardens, more than half of which would be made accessible to the public, are proposed throughout the site.

The visual centerpieces of One Beverly Hills - the 32-story, 410-foot-tall Santa Monica Residences and the 28-story, 369-foot-tall Garden Residences- would be the buildings in Beverly Hills, if built today.  The project also calls for the construction of a small 11-story, 124-foot-tall edifice called the Wilshire Building, which would contain the proposed hotel and condominiums.

Santa Monica Boulevard streetscapeDBOX for Alagem Capital

An environmental study circulated by the City of Beverly Hills anticipates an approximately 50-month construction period for the project, starting in 2021 and concluding in 2026.

The current proposal for One Beverly Hills is the third attempt by Alagem Capital to revise plans for an expansion of the Beverly Hilton campus first approved by voters in 2008.  While a second attempt at secure new entitlements at the ballot box was defeated in 2016, that proposal did not include the former Robinsons-May property - which Alagem acquired in 2018 - or a neighboring site on Wilshire Boulevard which is now improved with a gas station.

A portion of the existing master plan - the 12-story Waldorf Astoria hotel at Wilshire and Santa Monica - was completed in 2017.

A staff recommendation to the Planning Commission recommends taking testimony and providing feedback to Alagem Capital and its team, but does not provide guidance regarding a vote on project entitlements.

One Beverly Hills site planDBOX for Alagem Capital