RISING TO THE TOP
Jaw-dropping new eight-story boutique hotel being proposed for West Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills to prospectively include 201 lavish guest rooms, 3,200 square-foot ground-level restaurant, 8,200 square-foot banquet room, pool deck and more.

Mention “Ventura Boulevard” to anyone living virtually anywhere in the modern world, and immediately a plethora of instantly-recognizable staples will be identified:  palm trees, beautiful California girls, the rich and famous, glamorous shopping venues. Indeed, there’s a reason Ventura Boulevard incites these images; the legendary street has been mentioned in countless songs, featured in a nearly infinite amount of films and fostered unlimited numbers of celebrity sightings.

Much like New York’s Park Avenue or Broadway, it’s safe to say that if something’s happening on Ventura, it’s big news.

That’s precisely why when residents of Woodland Hills got wind of a proposal for a lavish new eight-story boutique hotel to be built at 20401 West Ventura, ears perked up and interest was piqued. A discussion and first courtesy presentation regarding a proposed project to develop a 160,299 square-foot, eight-story, 112-foot-high property was recently reported by sources including Urbanize LA, with this former location of Minatto Seafood Buffet residing just south of Warner Center.

If realized, the proposed 112-foot-high hotel will include 201 guest rooms, an 8,200 square-foot banquet room, 3,200 square-foot ground-level restaurant, pool deck and “other as-yet-unnamed amenities,” with off-street parking to be provided on four subterranean levels. The property was purchased in September of this year by 20401 Ventura Blvd LP, a firm based in Van Nuys, and as of just recently the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee viewed a courtesy presentation from the developer of the project – a plan that calls for a building to rise from the 1.66-acre site at 20401 West Ventura.

Meanwhile, just a couple of miles north, with its new Village at Westfield Topanga up and running, Australian developer Westfield recently filed plans for a massive mixed-use development at the site of the mostly-derelict Promenade Mall. To many in the property development loop, all this activity proves that things are really beginning to heat up in Woodland Hills…and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.

The Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee will also review plans for a seven-story residential project and medical office tower.

Continue to check back with Woodland Hills Magazine for developing details regarding this proposed boutique hotel.