Former Viceroy Creative Team Plan New Luxury Hotel in Downtown LA (Exclusive)

Proper, a new luxury boutique hotel concept from the couple that conceived of the trendy Viceroy chain as well as the Avalon in Beverly Hills, will soon be announced along downtown Los Angeles’ rapidly gentrifying historic Broadway corridor, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The move follows the initial launch of the hospitality brand in January by CEO Brad Korzen, whose high-profile designer wife Kelly Wearstler (industry clients include Gwen Stefani and Cameron Diaz) will be responsible for the interiors.

Previously disclosed Proper projects are set to debut in San Francisco, Austin and Hollywood’s soon-to-be resuscitated CBS Columbia Square complex on Sunset Blvd. Proper declined to comment on the downtown LA location. 

Built in 1925, the Commercial Club of Southern California originally occupied the 13-story Italian Renaissance Revival-style building at 1106 S. Broadway. It was a men’s-only refuge for local captains of industry who helped hatch plans for the 1932 Olympics and the burgeoning movie industry but eventually was turned into the Case Hotel in 1947. (In more recent decades it served as a YWCA outpost.)

Proper will sit opposite the frequently filmed (yet otherwise vacant) Hearst Herald Examiner building and two blocks south of both the year-and-a-half-old Ace Hotel and the Eastern Columbia loft building — another recent development by Korzen and Wearstler (Johnny Depp is reported to have purchased a penthouse unit) – along Broadway, home to the largest intact concentration of vintage movie palaces in the country.

Korzen’s Kor Group bought the 107,000-square-foot property with partner developers Frank Stork and Channing Henry for $13.5 million in 2013.

Updated June 12th, 5:25 p.m.: Architecture firm Omgivning tells THR that it’s handling the project. Its website, which features renderings of its plans, notes that the downtown L.A. Proper will feature 148 guest rooms, a new pool and bar on the roof, as well as a “pool suite” and “basketball suite” utilizing historic features. Also promised are a lobby-level restaurant and bar featuring sidewalk dining, plus a basement bar.

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