The offices on North La Brea, as seen from the north looking down at the La Brea and Hollywood intersection. | Google Maps
The nonprofit has often squared off against developers
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a local nonprofit that has often squared off against developers, has sold one of its Hollywood properties to a developer who plans to build a hotel on the site.
The developer, Jayesh Kumar, is seeking a handful of city approvals to erect a nine-story hotel on the site off Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, including permission to build taller than the site’s zoning would normally allow.
Ironically, in the city’s 2017 election, AHF introduced a ballot measure called Measure S that was aimed directly at these kinds of projects. The organization’s president has blamed tall buildings and luxury housing for gentrification and high housing costs. Had Measure S passed, it would have temporarily halted plans for projects that needed exceptions to city zoning and land-use rules.
In an email, an AHF spokesperson confirmed that the foundation has sold the building at 1710 North La Brea to Kumar for $8.5 million. The sale of the property is expected to close at the end of the year.
The spokesperson did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about Kumar’s plans for the property, or his request to build taller than normally allowed.
A department of city planning filing for the project notes that the hotel at the northeast corner of La Brea and Hollywood would include two restaurants on the ground floor. It would be one of a slew of new hotels planned as standalone developments or part of larger projects in Hollywood.
Kumar has a couple other hotels of similar scale planned across the LA area, including Burbank and Downtown LA near the Convention Center. One, in Glendale’s Riverside Rancho neighborhood, is staunchly opposed by some residents and has been the basis for two lawsuits.