Woodland Hills Neighborhood Council Approves Hotel

The Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council on Wednesday approved a proposed hotel that will now be reviewed by the city of L.A.’s planning process. FPG Development Group Inc. of West Palm Beach, Fla. hopes to build a seven-story, 170-room Home 2 Suites hotel at 5957 Variel Ave. at the corner of Oxnard Street and Variel Avenue. The site is diagonally across the street from 379 apartments currently under construction as part of the Warner Place project on the former Los Angeles Daily News headquarters’ site. The hotel would replace a 14,000-square-foot office building in the Warner Center Business Park. The project is within the Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan and does not need any exceptions to the plan. The planning and land use management committee held three public hearings on the project, and requested that some aesthetics and land areas be redesigned. Once changed, the committee approved the project June 1. Wednesday’s full-council approval sends the project to the City Planning Department with the local stamp of approval. Richard Mielbye, president of FPG Development, said the $20 million Home 2 Suites will be upscale, and added that the market for such hotels tends to be employees undergoing training by employers. He added that the company’s research shows this is a viable market. At the same meeting, council members also approved that the developers of a proposed Chick-fil-A Inc. restaurant could raze a local and long-vacant gas station. Chick-fil-A plans to demolish the gas station and related buildings at 20101 Ventura Blvd. at the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue, and to grade, clean and prepare the property to construct a nearly 4,700-square-foot restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating and a drive-thru. The approval applies only to the site work. The proposed restaurant still needs to be approved.