Developer LVMH has nearly reached the finish line after the Beverly Hills City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the French conglomerate’s plans to build a 115-key Cheval Blanc hotel on Rodeo Drive.
“It’s visionary, it’s the future,” Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse said of the proposal at the end of the four-hour meeting, during which council members deliberated over the project’s final environmental reviews. “It’s an anchor to change the landscape.”
The council still needs to approve and finalize the development agreement between LVMH and the city. Such agreements vary from project to project, but last year, Beny Alagem’s organization agreed to pay a $100 million public benefit payment over the course of eight years as part of his $2 billion hotel and residential plan on Wilshire Boulevard.
In 2018, LVMH bought the building at 468 Rodeo Drive — formerly occupied by Brooks Brothers — for $245 million, public property records show. The luxury retailer filed plans with the city two years later to develop the hotel.
A number of luxury retailers, including Hermès, Giorgio Armani and Chanel, had objected to the proposed hotel, arguing it would block a shared alley used by their stores to serve VIP clients.
When the city’s planning commission approved the project in June, commission staff said LVMH had addressed the retailers’ grievances.
The site of the proposed Cheval Blanc isn’t LVMH’s only property on the famous street. In December, the company bought the former 86-room Luxe hotel on Rodeo Drive for $200 million, though it’s unclear what the retailer plans to do with that property.
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LVMH gets go ahead for hotel on Rodeo Drive