Relevant Group Plans 531-Unit Project in Downtown L.A.

It seems that Relevant Group has gotten over its “Roadhouse Blues.”

A few years after giving up the keys to its Hollywood hotels, the developer is back with new multifamily plans for 1220 South Hope Street in Downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the Morrison Hotel (used by The Doors as cover art for their album of the same name) which Relevant had owned for years before selling the historic property to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) late last year.

Relevant now plans to redevelop the parcel it owns near the Morrison Hotel with up to 531 apartments, 27 of which would be set aside as affordable housing, along with over 7,100 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, according to an entitlement application filed to the L.A. City Planning earlier this week.

L.A.-based architecture firm MVE + Partners designed the eight-story project.

Representatives for Relevant Group could not immediately be reached for comment. 

The developer originally intended to redevelop the block, including the Morrison Hotel, which it acquired in 2018, into a development with 444 hotel rooms and 136 residential units. Yet the group defaulted on a $13.2 million loan tied to the project, which ultimately led to the sale of the historic hotel to AHF at a loss, according to reporting by The Real Deal at the time. 

Meanwhile, the Tommie and Thompson hotels, which Relevant opened in Hollywood in 2021, were acquired by their lenders in early 2023 via foreclosure. Both hotels became Hyatt properties, though owners Machine Investment Group and Taconic Capital announced last month that the Tommie hotel would rebrand as Hollywood Volume and depart the Hyatt label for Marriott, according to Los Angeles Magazine. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.