Beverly Hills Tower Pits Millionaire Vs. Billionaire

By James Nash

Bloomberg News

Published: 09-17-2016 11:27 PM

Los Angeles — Beverly Hills, home to some of the priciest properties in the U.S., is becoming the site of an expensive battle over real estate.

On one side is developer Beny Alagem, who has flooded residents with calls and mailers promoting a November ballot measure to allow him to combine two planned condo towers into a single building that would be the tallest in the Southern California enclave. Alagem, owner of the Beverly Hilton hotel, has already spent $3.1 million on the campaign, or almost $140 for each of the city’s 22,500 registered voters.

On the other side is an adversary with even deeper pockets, and its own plans in the tony community midway between downtown Los Angeles and the Pacific Coast. Dalian Wanda Group, a Chinese developer headed by Wang Jianlin — the world’s 19th-richest person, with a net worth of $32.7 billion — is proposing two towers across the street from Alagem’s project. Wanda Group also intends to spend an undisclosed amount of money fighting the ballot measure, according to a filing with the city.

“We looked at a compromise, but they decided to go for broke,” said Beverly Hills Mayor John Mirisch, who opposes Alagem’s proposal. While Mirisch hasn’t taken a stance on the Wanda Group plan, which calls for a 15-story hotel-and-condominium building and an adjacent one with 13 floors of condos, he praised the company for seeking city approval rather than going straight to voters.

Even before Wanda Group spends a penny, Alagem’s outlay for consultants, mailers and signature-gatherers dwarfs costs in previous races. For example, the priciest contest on a statewide ballot in 2014 was a measure to cap payouts in medical-malpractice cases, in which both sides spent a total of $4 per registered voter.

The projects from Alagem and Wanda Group sit across Merv Griffin Way from one another in a triangle bounded on two sides by Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, two major thoroughfares that pass through Beverly Hills on their way to the ocean.

Representatives for both developers say they’re not necessarily competing, even though both are planning luxury condos, and Alagem is already building a 170-room Waldorf Astoria adjacent to his Beverly Hilton, near Wanda Group’s proposed 134-room hotel. A June study prepared for Wanda Group by CBRE Group concluded that Beverly Hills could accommodate both hotels, with demand remaining for more rooms.

]]>

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles