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The King Edward hotel is one of the three buildings sold in a recent bankruptcy auction.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The King Edward (home to the locally famous King Eddy Saloon), the Baltimore and the Leland hotels, scattered around the intersection of 5th and Los Angeles streets, have been sold to developers for $9.8 million at a bankruptcy auction,

A partnership named Bristol 423 bought the three locations and will try to attract "young artistic types" with retail space, more security and overall structural facelifts, the L.A. Times reports; they will remain low-income housing though, said Bristol partner Eric Shomof.

"We'll try to bring back their original looks as much as possible," while adding lots of lights, Shomof said.

The three hotels were all built between 1904 and 1910 and have 415 units combined between them.

They were most recently owned by Yacoobian Enterprises, LP, which declared chapter 11 bankruptcy in August of 2010. In November 2011, they went before a bankruptcy judge.

According to creditor Canico Capital Group, the three century-old locations were determined to be in need of major renovations totaling about $3 million in deferred maintenance.

Shomof is no newbie to Downtown development and has worked before on revitalizing historical buildings in the area. He was part of the ownership group that rehabilitiated the the Hotel Bristol in 2009 and was involved in the revitalization of the retail space in the Hayward Hotel as well.