Research on the proposed development of a 3-story, 64-room hotel at 1633 S. Victory has revealed that this is a development for quick and big profit, designed with no consideration of the Rancho, it’s residents, nor nearby Benjamin Franklin Elementary School.
Before the project has even been fully approved for development, the developers are already planning their exit strategy. The property is currently being offered for $4,800,000.00 on the open real estate market and is advertised as a “Fully Entiteld [sic] Hotel Development” property.
Sale Notes
Fully Entiteld Hotel Development Burbank/Glendale Hudson Partners as exclusive agents is pleased to present for sale a highly visible fully entitled development site for a 64 unit hotel located at 1633 W Victory Blvd. The subject properties is strategically located on the city border of Burbank and Glendale and is within minutes to Downtown Burbank, Burbank Media District and Central Glendale. In addition the property central location and excellent accessibility to the 5, 134 and 101 freeway provides convenient driving distance to downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood and some of the best of Los Angeles retail and entertainment destinations. Furthermore, the subject property offers developers and investors the unique opportunity to acquire an entitled hotel site in a supply constrained market. The site is a vacant lot which is currently utilized as a car dealership with month to month tenancy. It measures a total of 20,943 square feet. The site is zoned C-2 and allows for a 50 foot height limit with no FAR restrictions other than the height limit. The approved plans are for 64 Rooms with 67 parking stalls, a podium level outdoor and a podium level swimming pool. See attached offering memorandum for further details. The property is located at the southeast corner of Victory Boulevard and Allen Street at the border of Burbank/Glendale CA. The property is ideally situated in proximity to the Burbank Media district, Disney world headquarters, NBC, Warner Brothers, The Honda Stage at iHeartRadio , Nickelodeon West Coast Headquarters and local area amenities, as well as notable Los Angeles destinations such as Downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena, Central Burbank and Downtown Glendale. Additionally, the subject property’s location is in the heart of everything that’ s exciting about Los Angeles, you are close to what you want to see and do in Southern California. Take your pick: famous concert venues, world-class sporting events, late night clubs, shopping, golf courses, family attractions, authentic neighborhoods, and so much more it’ s all close by.
http://looplink.rexfordindustrial.com/ll/6727466/1633-Victory-Blvd/
It’s also interesting to note that the developers / brokers for this proposed development are selling it as a means for tourists and guests to take their destination spending dollars to other communities with the City of Glendale mentioned as a mere afterthought.
Burbank Media district, Disney world headquarters, NBC, Warner Brothers, The Honda Stage at iHeartRadio , Nickelodeon West Coast Headquarters and local area amenities, as well as notable Los Angeles destinations such as Downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena, Central Burbank and Downtown Glendale.
Their sales brochure goes on to list other non-City of Glendale destinations; Universal Studios Hollywood, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, The Grove, Staples Center, LA Zoo, Disneyland Resort, Disney Concert Hall, Griffith Observatory, Dodger Stadium, and The Rose Bowl Stadium. On the map below, the City of Glendale receives no recognition at all.
And their list of amenities local to their proposed hotel neglects the City of Glendale completely, citing the Burbank Airport District, Downtown Burbank, Magnolia Park, and the Burbank Media District.
In fact, the real estate offering ad by Hudson Partners Investment Brokerage sells their hotel as a Burbank attraction.
(screenshot: Hudson Partners resale ad for 1633 s. Victory Blvd.)
Not only is this a clear indication that the current Applicant /developers have no intention of running the proposed hotel, nor being a part of the Glendale Rancho community; it shows an obvious disregard for the city in which they intend to develop, Glendale.
By looking at page 51 of their Phase II environmental study (inconclusive), one has to wonder if they’re even aware that they’re in the City of Glendale.
The above advertisements make it abundantly clear that his is a for profit only venture by a non-resident Applicant and developers who have shown complete disregard for the City of Glendale as well as the Glendale Riverside Rancho.
Other behaviors of neglect that further demonstrate the Applicant, Jayesh Kumar, and his developers have little or no regard for our city, the Rancho district, nor the site’s most local residents are:
- Failing/neglecting to maintain the property since obtaining ownership in March 2017.
- Failing to inform all residents and businesses within a 500 foot radius of the proposed development (as required by law)
- Informing only a handful of neighbors – on short notice – of meetings intended to address neighborhood concerns after the Design Review Board discovered they did no community outreach. By informing only a few neighbors they avoided disclosure and additional opposition, yet can claim transparency when questioned again by the Design Review Board.
- Proposing a monolithic urban project which is NOT appropriate for our semi-rural Rancho community
- Proposing a project which does not serve local community citizens nor offer any significant benefit to our local economy
- Designing a hotel that utilizes the public alleyway in order to maximize the number of units they can build
- Placing a 64-unit hotel one block away from an elementary school which already endures traffic congestion and further increases the risk of injury to children
- The developers refuse to reduce the number of units to accommodate nearby neighbors in adjacent R-1 residential zones
- The developers intend to bring a massive 64-unit business that keeps 24/7 around the clock business hours next to residential neighborhoods where most neighboring businesses operate during normal business hours.
It’s quite evident that the Applicant and developers do not have the interests of the City of Glendale, the Rancho nor it’s citizens in mind and are purely motivated by financial gain. We can only hope that the Glendale Design Review Board has the foresight and integrity to reject this project as entirely inappropriate.
The proposed hotel project at 1633 W. Victory (sic) in Glendale at the southeast corner of Victory and Allen (sic) in Burbank (sic) is so riddled with problems and negative impacts, beyond its applicant’s ignorance in identifying its actual address, as to be ludicrous. For the record, it’s 1633 S. Victory, Glendale 91201, SE corner of Victory and residential Winchester Ave., a block from Franklin Elementary School and mere yards from one of the most complex and busy intersections in the city that also serves as the permanent “detour” for freeway commuters connecting the I-5 and the 134–Victory and Western, both of which are multifamily residential and low-rise commercial.
The trash-filled defunct automotive-related eyesore of a site, which cries out for a hard look by Glendale’s AWOL code enforcement division for longtime neglect and ugliness, reinforces Rancho residents’ conviction that the city and its Planning Division (Community Development Department) are again discounting the Rancho’s property values, history, and character by even entertaining this completely inappropriate, badly-designed, incompatible project.
There’s a good reason the City Council-appointed Design Review Board members on June 14 sent the proposal “back to the drawing board” in a 5-0 vote after hearing from deeply-concerned residents. A second pass at the DRB is pending. This issue demands the concern of City Council members and Mayor Zareh Sinanyan, and City Manager Yasmin Beers, as well. It follows the 2018 contentious, rigorously-opposed Silver Spur Stables case, withdrawn after a nine-month fight by thousands of local and regional residents and equestrians, in which a Glendale developer, with the stables’ owner eager to sell, sought a history-busting zoning change to build pricey condos and shrink the Allen Ave. rider access path used by area riders to access Griffith Park’s trails, in the city’s Commercial Equestrian zone’s equine services sector.
The hotel proposal, again, paints a rosier picture of “benefits” which largely describe those to the developer, not to the immediate community. This is not a case of NIMBYism; it is a sobering reality of the relentless and egregious collaboration between eager-to-sell property owners, business-first developers, and city officials and staff who consider neighborhoods and residents mere components at the low end of the food chain, and local properties mere low-hanging fruit when other parts of town are overly built out and/or under moratoriums due to public outrage and/or mediocre occupancy.
PDR-1723012 must be opposed for its many ills that cannot merely be “tweaked” with changes. It is the wrong project for the wrong site at the wrong time in the ongoing concerns by residents for public safety, enjoyment of the area’s unique lifestyle and amenities, and property values. It is too high, too dense, too large, too bulky, too ugly, too impactful on existing streets and residents’ garage alley access, satisfies no important Rancho needs, and ignores longstanding school- and park-related activities, safety, and need for peace in an otherwise busy, noisy neighborhood we call home.
— Joanne Hedge, President, Glendale Rancho Neighborhood Association.