Developer Shivom has paid $18 million for a vacant office building in Downtown Los Angeles to convert into a 149-room Mama Shelter hotel.
The Corona-based developer run by Kevin Wadhwani bought the long-vacant, 70,700-square-foot office building at 124 East Olympic Boulevard in the Fashion District, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
The seller was Jamison Services, a unit of Jamison Properties, Koreatown’s largest commercial landlord. Jamison entitled the site for a 149-room hotel development prior to the sale.
Shivom will team up with Sammy Chotirmal, of Tennessee-based Hospitality Solutions, to redevelop the 65-year-old office building. The seven-story project will include street-level and rooftop restaurants run by SBE, based in New York and Miami.
Brokers Mike Condon Jr., Erica Finck, Connor Martin, McKenna Gaskill and Rob Hooks of Cushman & Wakefield represented Jamison. Jim DeRegt of Lee & Associates represented Shivom.
“This transaction is a key turning point in Downtown Los Angeles’ post-pandemic hospitality market,” Condon said in a statement. “Many experts recognize the lifestyle and boutique hotel segment in DTLA has been recently setting performance records.”
Occupancy in Downtown hotels was 67.6 percent last month, a 37.7 percent increase from the same time last year, according to a report from the Downtown Los Angeles Business Improvement District, according to Bisnow.
Mama Shelter, which launched in Paris in 2008, are boutique hotels with simply appointed but stylish rooms in the midmarket range. The chain runs a 70-room hotel in Hollywood, its only U.S. location.
Jamison won approval to convert the building at 124 Olympic into a hotel in 2019. The building was once an annex to the 1.8-million-square-foot California Market Center, which Jamison sold to Brookfield in 2017 for $440 million.
After a $250 million renovation of the hulking office complex, Brookfield has since signed Adidas and Forever 21 parent company SPARC to long-term leases.
— Dana Bartholomew
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