What's the best way to trick your tenants into fleeing from your Hollywood apartment building so you can deem the development uninhabitable and perhaps convert the building into a hotel? Convince your tenants there is a gas leak and that they must immediately pack up and leave. The Los Angeles Times' Bob Pool uncovers the alleged shenigans going on by the owners of the Hollywood development Villa Valentino: "Those living at 2000 N. Highland Ave. assert that the supposed "emergency evacuation" was a ploy by the building's new owners to get them out so that the designated city historic-cultural monument can be converted into a boutique hotel. Their refusal to leave has led to a seven-month standoff between tenants and the owners, who purchased the building for just under $5 million in November." City officials tell the Times that no documents regarding a hotel conversion have been filed, and that "they are now carefully monitoring repairs to Villa Valentino."
· Tenant-owner discord where the 'Latin Lover' is mythologized [LA Times]
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