Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wants to purchase a nearly 300-room historic hotel near downtown L.A. to convert into interim housing for the homeless as part of her Inside Safe initiative.
But residents and business owners near the Mayfair Hotel in Westlake are pushing back, recalling a neighborhood overrun by drug users, homeless people congregating outside the building, and increased violence and filth when the hotel operated as a Project Roomkey site to house unsheltered people during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.
That tension has been boiling in recent weeks, as city officials have held various meetings to discuss the potential real estate purchase.
And on Friday, Aug. 18, the City Council is scheduled to vote on a proposal authorizing city staff to negotiate and enter into a sales agreement with the owner of the Mayfair, a 294-room hotel at 1256 W. 7th St., that’s estimated to cost $83.2 million in overall purchase and related costs.
The cost breakdown includes approximately $60.2 million to purchase the hotel in its “as is” condition and $19.3 million in renovations. The remaining balance includes expenses such as closing costs and soft costs.
Members of the Bass administration say it will save the city a substantial amount of money longterm to purchase properties that it can own and convert into housing for the homeless, compared to paying nightly room rates to hotel and motel owners to house individuals in its Inside Safe program.
According to a recent report by the city’s General Services Department, it’s projected to cost $47.22 per night to operate a single room at the Mayfair – a figure which the mayor’s office said increases to about $83 a night if one included the costs of purchasing and renovating the hotel.
That’s still cheaper than the $114 average nightly cost for an Inside Safe motel room or the $154 to $183 nightly rate at the L.A. Grand Hotel, cited in the report. The city currently has leased out rooms at the Grand…
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