Rumors have recently surfaced that a hotel is being planned for the Farmers Insurance campus that was sold to CIM Group a few weeks ago. However, representatives from both the property owner and the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council (GWNC) said no specific development plans have been confirmed.

CIM Group recently purchased the Farmers Insurance building at 4680 Wilshire Blvd. (photo by Edwin Folven)

“CIM is currently evaluating plans for the Wilshire Campus that will be allowed under the Park Mile Specific Plan,” CIM Group spokeswoman Karen Diehl said. “The Wilshire campus presented a rare opportunity to acquire a significant property in the heart of Los Angeles. It is proximate to CIM’s numerous Los Angeles area investments that include office, retail and multifamily residential properties in Koreatown, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Midtown and Downtown Los Angeles.”

The plan outlines rules that developers must abide by and has been enforced since 1987.

Converting the property to a hotel would violate the plan and disrupt the character of the community, according to GWNC members who discussed the property at their most recent meeting on April 22. While CIM Group could pursue an exemption, Diehl stressed that any potential project would adhere to the plan.

“There was definitely general agreement that protecting the surrounding neighborhoods is absolutely the most important goal,” GWNC administrative consultant Elizabeth Fuller said. “A great majority of the residents present spoke up in favor of continuing the current protections, as originally written, without exception. A few people, however, suggested there might be ways of updating the plan to include some types of use not currently allowed, which might increase the vitality of the area without negative effects to the nearby neighborhoods. Most of the residents present disagreed with that idea, and expressed concerns that any changes, or types of changes, would hurt the integrity of the plan.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, 4th District, has been involved in the discussion and has heard from members of the community relating to the building.

“I do not support an exemption from this specific plan for a hotel or any other use at the historic Farmers Insurance property that does not comply with the Park Mile Specific Plan,” LaBonge said.  “The Park Mile Plan is very important. It has helped preserve the Brookside and Wilshire neighborhoods. To change the dynamic to create a 24-hour hotel would be inappropriate.”

Some community members share his perspective.

“Allowing any exemption to the plan would open the floodgate to more exemptions and destroy the residential character of our lovely neighborhood,” resident Christian Brant said.

Fellow neighbors agree.

“Making an exemption to the Park Mile Specific Plan is not in any way what I would consider progress, change or making improvements. I see it as the slow death of one of L.A.’s last remaining neighborhood jewels,” resident Sondra Toll Sepenuk said. “It is my hope that the Brookside/Hancock Park community and the new developers on Wilshire can come to an agreement that will benefit both parties, and will not destroy the fabric of the neighborhood.”

Owen Smith, chairman of GWNC, said he personally met with Shaul Kuba, co-founder of CIM Group, and verified that Kuba was not pursuing a hotel.

“[He] said he understood the conditions of the Park Mile Plan and would work within those parameters. We told him we were excited about his purchase and wanted to work with him and CIM to have a project that Brookside and CIM would be proud of and one that would be worthy of our efforts,” Smith said.

Sepenuk said she hopes that is the case.

“We only get one chance to get this right,” she added. “Let’s not destroy one of the best things this city has going for it — its people.”