Plans For Luxury Cheval Blanc Hotel Move Ahead In Beverly Hills

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Beverly Hills could soon house yet another luxury hotel owned by the same people who brought the city Louis Vuitton.

The Beverly Hills Planning Commission on June 13 unanimously recommended the Cheval Blanc hotel project move forward to City Council for final approval. It's the second massive, luxury development project to forge ahead in the city in recent months alongside One Beverly Hills. The massive project has prompted community concern about its height and potential for dense traffic.

The 1.24-acre property is situated between Rodeo Drive, Beverly Drive and South Santa Monica Boulevard and would include a 115-room hotel, restaurants and a private club, according to city documents. It was projected to take over four properties: the former Brooks Brothers, Celine store on Rodeo Drive, the Paley Center for Media, a retail building on Beverly Drive and the alley between these four properties.

The hotel would climb from four stories to nine stories, reaching a maximum height of 115 feet, according to city planner Masa Alkire. This height would require a City Council-approved exception to the three-story height limit in the business triangle, according to the Beverly Hills Courier.

Construction is expected to begin on the project in late 2022 and would take 38 months.

The project was a key talking point in the city's municipal election in June, as aspiring council members discussed discussed the building's height. Many locals have raised concern about the hotel's proposed height disrupting the village-like feel to the city.

"It's not lost on me that LVMH will bring a lot of money into Beverly Hills and I think that's what most of the attraction is to a project of this magnitude, that's really not lost on me. ... But I will say that a 9-story building at that location will destroy the sense of village and community that makes up Beverly Hills," long-time Beverly Hills resident Thomas Zaline said at a Feb. 10 planning commission meeting.

Concerns about whether the project will increase traffic congestion in the area have also dominated the commission's review, according to the Beverly Hills Courier.

Some residents celebrated the hotel's potential to bring the city business.

LVMH operates 11 stores in Beverly Hills, including Louis Vuitton and Dior. The Cheval Blanc in Beverly Hills will be the hotel's sixth location, joining a list that includes St. Tropez and Paris.

"We intend to be in the area for many decades to come. The reason for that is because Beverly Hills, and Rodeo Drive specifically, is truly unique in North America — really all of the Americas. There's no place else in the continent that has this concentration of the ultimate in high luxury, where all of the greatest Maisons have their flagships in such a concentrated area," said Anish Melwani, Chairman and CEO of LVMH in North America.