Multiple hotel proposals for the downtown area have Glendale city officials contemplating a designated hospitality corridor that would in turn create a more vibrant commercial district. Concentrating new hotels near each other and adjacent to the new condominiums and apartments at the Americana at Brand would drive pedestrian traffic to the area along Brand Boulevard between Broadway and Milford Street. “That gives another boost to those merchants that are already there,” said Phil Lanzafame, director of the Development Services Department. The hotel projects are in the construction and planning stages. A 272-room Embassy Suites is scheduled to open this spring at Central Avenue and Burchett Street. The City Center II development at Wilson Avenue and Brand Boulevard will include a 172-room hotel as well as condominiums. The developer has not settled on an operator for the hotel although a decision is expected this spring. A hotel has been proposed for Colorado Street between Brand Boulevard and Central Avenue but that project remains in the early stages and city officials have not seen an application yet. And an Orange County developer seeks city approval for a 150- to 180-room hotel on a city-owned parcel at Wilson and Central avenues. Komar Investments has joined with the Intercontinental Hotel Group to open an Indigo Hotel, a branded boutique inn appealing to younger, professional travelers. The city and Komar are negotiating a long-term lease for the property now used as a parking lot. During the talks, the city will not market the land. In addition, the redevelopment agency owns property at Maryland and Wilson that has received proposals for a hotel; and the Exchange, also on Maryland and which recently changed owners could be another opportunity, Lanzafame said. While small independent motels do business along Colorado in downtown, until the Embassy Suites is completed the only business-class hotel in the city is the Hilton at Brand and Glenoaks boulevards. Market studies from developers and anecdotal evidence heard by the city does show a need for more hotel rooms in the tri-cities area of Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena, Lanzafame said. While families do use the Hilton and will at times extend their stays, people traveling on business make up about half the guests coming to the city. Bringing more hotels to downtown benefits the corporate traveler as it is centrally located for business to business, Lanzafame said. Large corporations do call Glendale home. Nestle USA and IHOP are headquartered in downtown. Public Storage Inc., a major film studio in DreamWorks Animation and several divisions of The Walt Disney Co. are nearby. That developers look to Glendale as a site for additional hotels is an outgrowth of the city’s economic revitalization, said Michael Pfeiffer, executive director of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles. “Hotels would be a natural next step,” Pfeiffer said. The high-end guesthouses add to a good business mix and round out what the city has to offer for both the leisure and business traveler, Lanzafame added. The impacts from a hotel tend to be different from what an office building or residential building would bring to the same area. Plus the 10 percent transient tax for guests generates money for the city’s general fund. The city, however, needs to be careful and not overbuild with hotels having too many empty rooms, Lanzafame cautioned.
