Hotel Bristol Bought for Affordable Housing

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Once slated for a boutique hotel, the shuttered Hotel Bristol has been bought by a group that intends to return the structure to affordable housing. Eric Shomof of Pacific Investments confirmed the sale this afternoon, saying that the partners in his firm had done the deal as Bristol 423 L.P.. They plan to renovate the building and operate it as Section 8 housing.

Restauranteur Adolfo Suaya bought the building in 2003, but his plans were derailed by a lawsuit alleging that the low-income tenants in the SRO structure were improperly evicted. A 2008 settlement with the Community Redevelopment Agency dictated that the building must either stay empty or contain only affordable units until 2015.

Shomof said today that a timetable for the renovation had not yet been set, but that the sale had closed. Pacific Investments owns the Hayward Hotel at 6th and Spring, also a Section 8 project, and is nearing completion on a significant upgrade to the ground-floor retail and aesthetics of that building. The firm also owns nearby market-rate developments Premiere Towers, City Lofts, Spring Tower Lofts and Milano Lofts.

The 103-room Bristol, built in the early 1900s, had become severely blighted by the time it was purchased by Suaya in 2003. The block of 8th street is also home to the 213 Ventures' Golden Gopher and popular restaurant Colori Kitchen.

Shomof wants to bring "some cool retail" to the building. He has been involved in opening clothing store Crack Gallery and new eatery D-Town Burger Bar in the ground floor of the Hayward.