Historic Core to Get a Holiday Inn with History

By Eric Richardson
Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008, at 12:39AM

Metropolitan Garage Los Angeles Times

1952 Times caption begins: Shown above is the 13-story Metropolitan Garage Building, at 417 S Spring St., newly acquired by the Title Insurance & Trust Co...

Brady Westwater is reporting that a Holiday Inn is signed on to open in the Historic Core, occupying the annex to the John Parkinson designed Title Insurance Building on Spring street between 4th and 5th. As Brady notes, the site is directly across the street from Tom Gilmore’s proposed hotel development, announced back in October. What’s particularly interesting, though, is that this may well be the first Holiday Inn to occupy a former parking garage.

The 13-story annex at 417 S. Spring street was built in 1928 as the Metropolitan Parking Garage. The Title Insurance & Trust Company acquired the structure in late 1952 from Bentley J. Tufeld and remodeled it into office space in 1954. The expansion added 178,000 square feet to the 350,000 square feet of offices housed next door in the company’s 433 S. Spring location. Four floors of parking were kept at the bottom of the building, and the exterior was given a modern look and colored to match the headquarters next door.

If plans go through and the Holiday Inn is installed, you’ll get the chance to sleep where Model A’s once parked.




Comments

1
Juanito writes:

The site of both the Title Insurance Building and the garage had once been the Grand Pacific European Hotel constructed in the mid 1890s in Second Empire mode. Before demolition of this builing, the hotel had been moved across the street into the green terra cota building now being redeveloped. There is a great pic of the original facade of the garage in the Central Library’s Security Pacific Collection - much more fine than that of the Times’.

# on Jan.30.2008 AT 02:09 AM
2
David Kennedy writes:

Wow. Corporate America is on the march. Coming to the Historic Core no less. Great and astonishing news. Hard to believe.

Fingers crossed. I look forward to the impact on the street and the overall neighborhood.

# on Jan.30.2008 AT 08:58 AM
3
David Kennedy writes:

This development also makes me wonder about the impact upon my mother-in-law who works in garment manufacturing on Spring at 4th. I’m sure most people are unaware of this kind of business activity. The building she works in once housed the central library on a temporary basis in the late 80s and early 90s. It is packed with these businesses.

# on Jan.30.2008 AT 10:30 AM
4
jim winstead writes:

most holiday inns are independently owned. i wonder who is actually behind this?

it sounds like a great addition to the historic core.

# on Jan.30.2008 AT 10:50 AM
5
LAofAnaheim writes:

Wow….an office bldg that replaced a parking garage! Heck yeah!

# on Jan.30.2008 AT 12:08 PM
6
Metro Local writes:

Intercontinental operates the Holiday Inn chain although there are many that are franchised.

My presumption is that the location was a calculation of the cost benefit of available, suitable properties. Maybe it was second place to the corner that burned last year?

Either way, so long to filming at 433 S. Spring as that parking lot, at a minimum, will be unavailable for production parking off hours.

# on Jan.30.2008 AT 01:22 PM
7
Eric Richardson writes:

Metro: Note that we’re talking about the structure, not the lot. The lot is separate ownership, and there’s no reason it’s impacted by this news. Not that I’m particularly for filming, but I don’t see how this would affect it one way or the other.

I also can’t see how 4th/Broadway would be a good location for a hotel. 1) They’d need to do ground up construction vs. a rehab. 2) That’s a very dead corner of Broadway. 3) There’s no particular downside to being on Spring and around the corner once Broadway were to come back.

# on Jan.30.2008 AT 01:43 PM
8
Desert Bruin writes:

hmm… why don’t they also take the s.e. corner of 4th/Broadway plus the s.w. corner of 4th/Spring for a larger development, rather than a boutique sized affair? Then there would be pressure to develop the north side of 4th. Create some e-w momentum instead of all n-s.

# on Jan.30.2008 AT 03:22 PM
9
John Crandell writes:

Something doesn’t look right with this. The corridors would need to be against the south wall of the building given that it abutts the former Title Insurance Building. Rooms or suites would then have windows facing either onto Spring or towards the parking lot on the southwest corner of the 4th Street intersection, a lovely view - as is the parking lot on the north side of 4th. With the original ornamentation deracinated so long ago, what’s left to look at? Perhaps the idea is to continue use as a garage - parking for a new hotel building at the corner. A new structure would accommodate the number of rooms mentioned in the Times article. Parkinson’s Angelus Hotel stood at this location.

# on Feb.02.2008 AT 02:37 AM

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