SeeCalifornia.com

The beloved Wilshire Grand hotel has been demolished, making way for the tallest building on the West Coast (see California’s tallest buildings list). That empty hole you’re feeling in your soul soon will be replaced with “Seoul”, as Korean Air constructs a 73 story gleaming tower of hospitality in downtown Los Angeles.  From its ground floor indoor-outdoor lobby to three stories of shops and restaurants, guests can relax, or head straight up to the sky via rapid elevators where they can check into one of 900 rooms at the sky lobby on the 70th floor. On the The 71st floor a fabulous view restaurant will be the new must-dine attraction, and the top floor may feature an infinity swimming pool and recreation area. The price tag of this dream is around $1 billion.

Located at  Wilshire Boulevard and Figueroa Street, the new skyscraper will be slightly taller than the 72-story U.S. Bank Tower on Bunker Hill. While we’ve heard that China is buying up California property much as the Japanese did during a previous boom, South Korea is making a statement about its growing status as a global economic powerhouse with this new building that replaces the old Wilshire Grand owned by Korean Air since 1989.  Korean Air is the flagship company for Hanjin Group that makes  $20 billion in annual revenue. The Hanjin cargo ships at Southern California ports are a common sight, and are part of the company’s interests in land, sea, air transportation, construction, industry and finance services.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• The new Wilshire Grand completion is expected in 2017.
• Korean Air has served Los Angeles for more than 40 years.
• At street level there will be about three floors of restaurants and shopping.
• 30 floors of offices for rent take up floors 4-33 (approx.)
• Los Angeles architect David Martin of AC Martin Partners is designing the project.
• The former 936-room Wilshire Grand was built in 1952 as Hotel Statler.