The plan for a boutique hotel on Selma and Cahuenga has been kicking around for years, but last we heard about it (in January), bond funding from the city had fallen through and the developers were on the hunt for financing. Today a press release announces that the Selma Hotel is back with immigration-based financing and a new shingle--it'll be the Dream Hollywood, the West Coast's first Dream Hotel (here's one of the brand's New York outposts, a cheese grater-esque affair in the Meatpacking District). The hotel will be a partnership with Hampshire Hotels and Resorts, which manages the Dream Hotel brand. Back in 2008, developers Five Chairs and Grant King got city approval for a nine story, 148 room hotel built on top of an existing parking garage and designed by Killefer Flammang. The plans call for a rooftop pool, restaurant, and lounge, plus an exciting pedestrian plaza in the alley along the side of the building.
With financing as impossible find as it has been, Five Chairs and King had to get a little creative and they tried out an idea that's starting to get more play lately. According to the release, the developers "The key to the project’s resuscitation is the US Citizen and Immigration Department’s EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program being utilized for financing?The EB-5 program is available to prospective immigrants who invest a minimum of $500,000 in a new commercial enterprise that will create at least 10 full-time jobs in the United States. In return, these investors receive expedited Green Card citizenship approvals by the USCIS. Last month Heyman and King took the first step toward securing EB-5 financing by receiving USCIS approval and designation of the Hollywood International Regional Center (HIRC), an immigrant investment fund and urban real estate development company."
A rep for the project tells us that construction is expected to start in the spring, with opening scheduled for fall 2013.
· Selma Avenue Hotel Brings Boutique-ness to Hollywood [Curbed LA]
· Sweet Alley Dreams Realized: Fewer Cars, More Cobblestone [Curbed LA]
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