Developer behind Ace and Soho Warehouse says it will open budget hotel in Silver Lake

BLVD745, the real estate developer that helped bring the Ace Hotel to Downtown Los Angeles, is planning to open a new chain of “budget” hotels with it first locations near Los Angeles State Historic Park and Silver Lake.

The hotels will be called Roadhouse Hotel and Junction, with rates around $200 nightly, says Nico Rusconi, cofounder of BLVD745, which also helped cement a deal to bring Soho Warehouse to the Arts District.

The Silver Lake location will feature a ground-floor restaurant helmed by chef Eduardo Ruiz and a pool that will open to the public for free, he said. Guests will check into and unlock their rooms via smartphone.

The hotel plans still need approval from the city but openings are targeted for 2018.

Rusconi would not disclose the addresses of the two forthcoming locations; he and his partner Jon Blanchard are still in escrow on both properties. They are dropping $27 million on a lot near the state park (also called Cornfield Park) and $23 million on the Silver Lake site. They will spend $18 million to build the state park location from the ground up and about $17 million rehabbing an existing building in Silver Lake.

“Right now it’s not feasible to develop something in the Historic Core, where we’re seeing rooms for $300 and $400 and above. In Silver Lake, the development atmosphere there, we can sell at $200 a night,” Rusconi told Curbed.

The look of the hotel will be best described as “Americana,” he said, with “a lot of early kind of American elements, timeless, classic design elements. It’s very clean but also sophisticated.”

Rusconi likened BLVD745 to a film producer, saying the company typically orchestrates the development of new hotels by securing financing and cementing branding contracts and overseeing the project through construction. Roadhouse Hotel and Junction will be its first in-house brand.