When Paul Allen paid $41 million for the Redbury Hotel in Hollywood last June, people wondered what he was up to. The co-founder of Microsoft is not known as a hotelier.
Allen’s plan is now clear — the Redbury will be turned into a club for entrepreneurs similar to a co-working venue, but turned up to 11 with such Hollywood touches as a recording studio, swimming pool and live performance stage.
After a makeover valued at more than $10 million, the hotel building will reopen in April 2018 as the first U.S. outpost of Allen’s Hospital Club, a popular locale in London for people in creative fields to hang out, work or make things together.The original club was opened in 2004 by Allen and English musician Dave Stewart in a derelict 18th-century hospital building in London’s Covent Garden district. After a search in the U.S., Allen decided to expand near the storied intersection of Hollywood and Vine.
“L.A.’s position as a hub of art, culture and creativity makes it the ideal location for the h.Club’s first global extension,” Allen said in a statement.
Members of the Hollywood version at 1717 Vine St. will be able to use the club as a substitute for an office, but it will more broadly be a place for entrepreneurial people in different fields to connect and collaborate, said Sue Walter, chief executive of Hospital Club.
The Los Angeles Club will have lounges, a screening room, a recording studio and a performance space intended for musical acts, theater pieces, comedy, magic and opera, Walter said. Artworks by members will be displayed.
There will be three dining areas including a rooftop restaurant that leads into a desert garden inspired by the English gardens of the late filmmaker Derek Jarman. Cleo, an existing restaurant, will continue to operate independently on the ground floor. There will be a swimming pool and a gym.
Source: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen bringing hip London club to Hollywood and Vine
Recent Comments