A proposal to squeeze a new 84-foot hotel into a single lot between two existing housing projects will head to Planning Commission next month.
The project at 516 Colorado would pack 74 guest rooms, a ground floor restaurant, outdoor seating area, lobby, guest drop-off area, rooftop bar and two subterranean levels with a fitness area and business center into an eight-story building on the 41.75 ft wide former site of Angels Attic dollhouse museum.
Howard Laks Architects, the firm designing the building has proposed an angled-balcony design. According to Howard Laks, rooms on the north and south sides of the building will have alternating, diagonal balconies designed to maximize views of Downtown Santa Monica, Santa Monica Pier, Marina Del Rey and Catalina Island on a clear day.
An initial review of the project by the Architectural Review Board praised elements of the design but raised concerns over the privacy of the guest rooms, lack of parking and the layout and landscaping of the ground floor level.
The ground floor is comprised of the lobby, vehicle guest drop-off area, linear circulation access drive and outdoor eating area along Colorado Avenue. While some amenities including the fitness and business centers will be below ground, no parking is proposed on-site.
The project would slot into an already busy section of Santa Monica bordered by a pair of supportive housing developments, the BBB facility, the Expo line and two other hotels.
Step Up on Colorado is at 520 Colorado. The Kaufmann Apartments, as they are known, opened in 2015 and provide housing to up to 32 formerly homeless individuals. Step Up is a national program that supports people experiencing serious mental health issues, and persons who are experiencing chronic homelessness, to help them recover, stabilize, and integrate into the community.
On the other side is Colorado Court at 502 Colorado. The building is part of Community Corporation of Santa Monica and includes 44 units of extremely low-income housing. The project was designed as a model of sustainable development to replace some of the housing lost with construction of the adjacent Big Blue Bus facility.
That block of Colorado is fenced due to the train running along Colorado and two other hotels sit at the intersection of Colorado and 5th Street.
The Planning Commission will debate the project on Wednesday, March 1 at 6 p.m. in City Hall, 1685 Main Street.
