Category: faculty center

Bel-Air

A news note on the UCLA hotel/conference center issue.

The Hotel Bel-Air, just north of campus, is about to reopen, albeit with a labor dispute in progress. And Marilyn Monroe (at left and in the video below from a 1953 visit to the Hotel) won’t be staying there this time around.

From the LA Times:

When the Hotel Bel-Air reopens next week after a two-year renovation, the resort’s mascot swans — Chloe, Athena and Hercules — will still occupy the lush 12-acre property visited by presidents, movie stars and other dignitaries. But absent will be most of the union workers who washed dishes, made beds and laundered towels at the hotel. They were laid off when the hotel closed, and many of them will return only to march and protest outside the hotel entrance. The historic hotel, closed in 2009 for the multimillion-dollar upgrade, will reopen Friday with only about a dozen of its former union workers on the staff of 275, dealing a blow to the hotel workers union and its members. The protest will be organized by the hospitality workers union Unite Here Local 11, which contends the hotel used the construction project to oust the union from the hotel…

Full article at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-1008-hotel-bel-air-20111008,0,6877709.story

Bottom line: More local hotel rooms coming on line – although these will be swanky ones. Presumably, the long-awaited review of the campus hotel/conference center project will take account of such developments. We are patiently waiting.

Not to Worry: Follow Up on Hotel Plan

Yesterday, we posted a reminder that we are all waiting for the revised UCLA hotel plan. From a Fox TV News press release comes word that if UCLA goes ahead with a grand hotel/conference center plan that then flops, there will still be hope. Help will be on the way:

After over a decade of running restaurants in some of the top hotels around the world, traveling the globe and running an award-winning boutique hotel in London, (Gerald) Ramsay knows firsthand the crucial importance of surpassing guests’ highest expectations. In the series, Ramsay and a team of hospitality experts will travel across the country to fix struggling hotels, mediocre motels and just plain bad bed & breakfasts. FOX and Chef Gordon Ramsay have checked into HOTEL HELL (working title), a new unscripted series from Ramsay’s One Potato Two Potato Inc. From dirty bedrooms and mold-ridden bathrooms to incompetent staff or customer service that’s not up to par, Ramsay and his team will work with the hotel employees to turn these hapless establishments around. As he tries to turn these “No”-tels into successful hotels, Ramsay – in his own inimitable style – will go head-to-head with the owners and staff, raising the tension to maximum capacity. With reputations on the line, one thing is certain: if they can’t meet Ramsay’s high standards, they will never check out of HOTEL HELL…

Full release at http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/09/21/fox-orders-new-gordon-ramsay-series-hotel-hell-working-title/104397/

So not to worry. We can now rely on reality TV from Fox in case of problems with our hotel. Yours truly was afraid the only reality TV we might have to rely on was NBC’s “Biggest Loser.” Or maybe there is still some other TV alternative, if you get my message:


Hotel Plan: We’re Waiting


The fall quarter is getting under way and (soon???) there should be a re-studied plan from the UCLA administration on the Grand Hotel project that was proposed – but halted after protests from the Academic Senate – to replace the Faculty Center. We are waiting patiently for the (revised???) plan.

But in the meantime – a modest??? musical contribution – to salute the UCLA construction empire:

Construction and Demolition

The narration on the video below says that UCLA has a plan to convert from a “commuter campus” to a “residential campus.” Hence, there must be a lot of new construction and demolition of old buildings.

In addition, there is a large building going up near the old hospital. The Daily Bruin recently carried an article discussing and illustrating the demolition and replacement of an engineering building:


Might the empire have enough to do with these various projects without demolishing the Faculty Center and replacing it with a 280-room hotel? Just asking.

Wilshire-Gayley Hotel Plan Reported to be Moving Right Along

As previous posts on this blog have noted, a local developer bought and cleared the old Hollywood video store site at the corner of Wilshire and Gayley with plans to open a new Westwood hotel.

LAObserved reported yesterday that the Wilshire-Gayley plan is moving along, with an architect hired to deal with the odd triangular shape of the site. (There is a further link in the LAObserved article to a more detailed piece on the proposed hotel.)

Readers of this blog will also know that UCLA has been proposing to build a 280-room hotel/conference center where the Faculty Center is now located. If built, that hotel would have to compete for business with existing Westwood-area hotels, possibly including this new one.
In short, in Westwood Village things are moving along. On campus, with money tight, it might be advisable to slow down.

How to Turn $70 Million into $63 Million in 7 Years: Build a 210-Room Hotel Adjacent to Campus

A straw in the wind about the Estancia Hotel in La Jolla next to UC-San Diego:

The seven-year-old, 210-room Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa, located adjacent to UC San Diego, has been put up for sale. The owner, Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises, is not saying why it’s marketing the property nor did it divulge an asking price, but an online real estate publication estimates the luxury property could fetch more than $60 million. The hotel and conference center, which sits on a nine-acre site known at one time as the Black Family La Jolla Stables, was developed at a cost of $70 million. The Real Estate Alert newsletter estimates that the property could sell for $63 million…

Full story at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jun/02/luxury-la-jolla-hotel-up-for-sale/

Maybe a lesson to be learned about the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center to replace the Faculty Center? Just a thought.

Anyway, as the song says, build it and “bring your alibis”:

Who Owns It?

As the 1951 fundraising letter above indicates, the UCLA Faculty Center began with contributions from various sources. (Click on the image for a clearer look.) The Regents apparently contributed less than half, perhaps a third, of the original funding. However, documents available do not make it clear who owns the building (as opposed to the land under it which clearly is university property). What is known is that over the years, there were discussions of a formal contract (Memorandum of Understanding – MOU) between UCLA and the Board of the Faculty Center.

Below you can find a draft of an MOU from 2005 – one which was never signed. It contains a statement on page 2 (of the MOU, not the pdf) that the university owns the building. So it appears that the university wanted a statement that it owned the building. But the Board never agreed to this MOU or any other version.

As the song goes:

How to Have a Major Conference Without a Campus Hotel


As a follow up, readers of this blog will recall an earlier entry about the 2-day Governor’s Conference on Local Renewable Energy Resources which was held at UCLA recently without the need for a new hotel/conference center.

If you don’t recall it, check out http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/07/rooms-at-inns.html

The first day of the governor’s conference was held at Covel and the second at the Faculty Center, the very Faculty Center that was slated to be demolished for the hotel/conference center.

For a more complete photo montage, below is a full collection of pictures of the event. Click on the arrow to start the automatic show:

An official statement about the event reports that “The conference embodied the Governor’s vision along with the Luskin Center for Innovation’s purpose to unite the intellectual capital of UCLA with forward-looking civic leaders to address the most pressing issues confronting our community, nation and world.”

Auditor Looks In: Now that the audit is out, a money-losing hotel would not be advisable

Undoubtedly, the headline on the audit report for UC released today will be the generalized call for more “transparency.” The report produced a nasty back and forth between UCOP and the State Auditor as to whether what the report found was significant or not with UCOP effectively suggesting that the audit was a waste of money. The audit was the product of a request by state senator Leland Yee – now running for mayor of San Francisco – who has made something of a career out of criticizing the university.

That being said, there is material in the report about “auxiliary enterprises” and whether they are subsidized or not. The specific cases raised are 1) use of student fees for the Pauley renovation at UCLA (and another building, see pp. 57-58 of the report; these are report pages, not pdf pages) and 2) a subsidy UC-Berkeley provided to its money-losing athletics program.

On a listing of the number of “funds” (accounts) for such enterprises and functions, UCLA has more of these accounts than other campuses and they are concentrated in housing, hotel, conference services, etc. (See page 54.) The auditor notes that UCOP’s position is the campus auxiliary enterprises are the responsibility of the campuses and that it does not get much involved in them. (p. 53)

In the back and forth sniping between UCOP and the auditor (which begins on p. 79), there is an interesting statement in the auditor’s reply (page 90, item marked “15”).

The auditor says that UCOP’s critique of the audit overstates its (the auditor’s) concerns about auxiliary enterprises, assuming that there are no plans within UC to provide subsidies to such enterprises more frequently than is now the case. The auditor assumes that the Berkeley case is a rare occurrence. It disagrees with UCLA as to whether the Pauley diversion was/is legit but, again, seems to assume that the Pauley situation was a unique event. It would be a Bad Thing for UCLA and UC if – following such an audit – it turned out that there were more money-losing enterprises in the works that would need some kind of subsidy or diversion.

All of which takes me to the hotel/conference center UCLA has planned to replace the Faculty Center. As has been pointed out by the Academic Senate Committee on Planning and Budget, the hotel’s business plan is a money loser. If we commit to a money-losing enterprise after the state auditor raises concerns about subsidizing such enterprises or diverting funds to them – but seems to have been assured that such decisions were rare anomalies that are not expected to happen in the future – we are asking for trouble.

So maybe we shouldn’t ask for it. You think?

You can read the state auditor’s report at http://bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2010-105.pdf

You can find a media account of the report at http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/07/audit-says-university-of-california-should-be.html

Note: Ultimately, UCLA did not use the student fee for Pauley after complaints. But it defends its rights to have done so. See http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/audit-finds-ucla-misused-23-million-student-fees-11813

Rooms at the Inns

UCLA (Covel on the first day) is the site of a conference sponsored by Governor Jerry Brown on “Local Renewable Energy Resources.” You can find the agenda for the event at:

http://gov.ca.gov/s_energyconference.php

Now here is an interesting side note to the conference. Apparently, the participants and guests can be accommodated without a big hassle (and without a new on-campus hotel).

If you click on the website above, you will find the statement:

Hotel information: The nearby Luxe Hotel is providing rooms at a group rate. Call (800) 468-3541 and provide the group code UCLAGOV to book a room.

Below that, if you don’t want to stay at the Luxe, you are told:

For other hotels in the area, check out http://www.travel.ucla.edu/new/HOTELS/LosAngele_Vicinity.shtml

If you click on that link, you will find a listing of area hotels with rates as low as $89. You can also find the cost of staying at the Luxe at the UCLA rate which turns out to start at $139 per night. Here is the listing if you don’t want to bother to click:

Best Western Gateway Hotel Santa Monica
UCLA rates start $84.00*

Courtyard LAX, Century City and Beverly Hills
UCLA rates start at $99.00 – 129.00*

Crowne Plaza Beverly Hills
UCLA rates start at $109.00 – $279.00*

Doubletree Guest Suites Santa Monica
UCLA special rates start at $179.00*

Doubletree Los Angeles – Westwood
UCLA rates start at $149.00 – $379.00*

Hilton Los Angeles Airport
UCLA rates start at $89.00 – $450.00*

Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air
UCLA special rates start at $109.00*

Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard
UCLA special rates start at $139.00*

Oakwood
UCLA rates start at $103.00*

The Huntley Hotel
UCLA special rates start at $189.00*

Renaissance LAX
UCLA special rates start at $125.00*

Residence Inn Beverly Hills
UCLA rates start at $110.00 – $249.00*

Sheraton Santa Monica
UCLA rate $159.00*

The Los Angeles Athletic Club
UCLA special rates start at $110.00*

UCLA Guest House
UCLA special rates start at $109.00*

W Hotel Westwood
UCLA special rates start at $199.00*

Oh. I noted above the location of the first day of the conference. Did I mention where the second day of this event will be held? It will be at the UCLA Faculty Center.

Bottom line: A major conference held at UCLA can be serviced by existing area hotels at room costs well below the room cost projections for the 280 room hotel/conference center UCLA proposed to replace the Faculty Center. And even in its current state – which clearly needs improvement – the Faculty Center can service the conference.