Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 20

Hotel Lucile Opens 25 Rooms in 1931 Los Angeles Church After 7.5-Year Restoration

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 20

Hotel Lucile Opens 25 Rooms in 1931 Los Angeles Church After 7.5-Year Restoration

Q: What hidden bankruptcies and neighborhood battles nearly derailed the transformation of a 1931 Los Angeles church into a luxury hotel?

The church-to-hotel conversion was nearly undone by a combination of the original developer’s bankruptcy and years of neighborhood opposition over the project’s impact. The property, the 1931 Bethany Presbyterian Church in Silver Lake, was initially slated for redevelopment by restaurateur and developer Dana Hollister. Although Los Angeles approved permits in 2014 for a 25-room hotel with alcohol service and entertainment, the plan stalled. Hollister filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018 after separate financial and legal troubles tied to her failed Los Feliz convent deal involving Katy Perry and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. She ultimately sold her interest in 2020, when Casetta Group took over the long-term lease from the Presbytery of the Pacific, which owns the site. At the same time, the project faced a prolonged neighborhood fight. Nearby homeowners and some businesses objected during city hearings, warning that a hotel, restaurant, liquor service and dancing would worsen already tight parking, add traffic and noise, and disrupt the residential character around Sunset Junction. The absence of on-site parking became a particular flashpoint, and it remains an unresolved concern even after the opening, since the hotel depends on valet service and street parking. Those financial setbacks and local land-use battles stretched the adaptive-reuse effort into a more than decade-long process before Hotel Lucile finally opened.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 20

Sept. 14 marked the opening of Hotel Lucile, a 25-room boutique hotel created inside Los Angeles' former Bethany Presbyterian Church, built in 1931 in Silver Lake.
A 7.5-year restoration kept key church features intact while adapting the building for guests, including stained-glass windows, wooden beams, high ceilings and steel-framed windows.
The biggest overhaul came in the former chapel, now the restaurant and dining room, where crews lifted original wood floors to add modern plumbing, electrical systems and soundproofing before reinstalling them.
Anthony Gutierrez said the nearly century-old structure produced surprises up to the certificate of occupancy, as the project balanced preservation with current building requirements.
The property's new identity mixes historic architecture with contemporary touches such as an art collection, an Erewhon-curated minibar and a nightly martini cart.