Building Trades News

W Hotel Project in Hollywood

Photos by Slobodan Dimitrov
Story by Roy San Filippo

Hollywood's new W Hotel & Residences are currently under development as part of the mixed-use Hollywood & Vine Project. The project includes three stories of below grade parking, a total of six high structures for the hotel and two separate condo and apartment buildings.

The hotel will have 305 guest rooms and the property will include a private rooftop pool and gym, a signature restaurant, a 9,200-square-foot spa and a rooftop bar.  The $600-million area project broke ground in Feb. 2007. The $600 million, mixed-use project, is the largest privately-financed real estate project in California history and will transform the historic intersection of Hollywood and Vine. The development will also include 143 condominiums, 375 luxury apartments and approximately 50,000 sq. ft. of retail space. Seventy-eight of the units will be designated as affordable.

The project is located across from the historic Pantages Theatre and above the Hollywood/Vine Metro Red Line subway station and takes up nearly five acres on the block bounded by Hollywood Boulevard on the north, Selma Avenue on the south, Argyle Avenue on the east and Vine Street on the west. The historic Taft Building, on the corner of Vine Street and Hollywood Boulevard, is the only existing structure on the block that will remain intact when the project is completed.

"A project of this magnitude and profile requires enormous communication, coordination and planning, but we are thrilled to finally break ground on what we believe is Hollywood's brightest new star," said Gatehouse Capital president and CEO Marty Collins. Gatehouse Capital along with HEI Hospitality, LLC and Legacy Partners are developers on the project. "The W Hollywood Hotel and Residences will turn an area that had over the years become emblematic of urban blight into a premier destination for residents, visitors and workers."

L.A. City Councilman Eric Garcetti, who has called for environmentally responsible development that places housing near public transit, supported the W Hotel and residential project, which will provide a bus layover facility and sits atop the Hollywood/Vine Metro station.

The $26,900,000 worth of reinforcing ironwork on the project has gone smoothly so far according to Don Morrison, Field Superintendent with Pacific Coast Steel. When Local 416 members are finished on the project in November, they will have laid down 18,000 tons of rebar in about 14 months on the job, said Morrison.

"Our guys have a lot of pride in what they do," said Ironworkers 416 President Marco Frausto. "We lay the most cable, put in the most rebar and log the most hours of any local in the international," he noted as he escorted Building Trades News along the project where approximately 60 members from 416 were laying cable and building columns.

"It takes a special kind of person to be a Reinforcing Ironworker," Frausto said. "The work is very demanding on the body. Our members are picking up loads of 80-100 pounds day-in and day-out and placing materials by hand."

Local 416 has had an excellent safety record on the project, with only a few minor first-aid cases in the approximately 80,000 man-hours longed on the project to date.

"The safety of our members is the biggest priority of Local 416," said Frausto. He said the Apprentices who first enter the trade are given an intensive 8-week safety course on Saturdays. Apprentices on the job are also given special stickers that identify them so that Foreman and Journeyman know to watch them more closely. "You may have noticed that all of our Apprentices have an "A" on their hardhats," Frausto said.

"That's to identify them as Apprentices so that Foreman and Journeyman know to keep an eye on them and focus a little more training on them and make sure they are going to be safe."
In addition, Ironworkers Local 433 has approximately 23 members currently on the project working for several companies including Southwest Stair and Bapko Metals.