Level Furnished Living in Downtown LA

A friend just sent me an article from Wehoville. Last year the City of West Hollywood issued a ruling that Korman Communities, operator of the AKA extended-stay hotel, was breaking the law by offering units as short-term rentals. There are actually 190 units in the complex, which was originally approved by the City as residential condominiums. When the site was purchased by Korman, they announced that the units would instead be offered for extended-stays. This is key, because this use is allowed, since guests would be residing there for more than 30 days.

But after doing some research, Interim Director of Planning John Keho concluded that the 110 units in the west tower were actually being offered as hotel rooms. He found evidence on-line that AKA was promoting the building as a hotel and decided the City had to put a stop to it. Korman is appealing the decision, and there will be a hearing this week.

The reason I’m bringing this is up is that there’s a similar situation at Level Furnished Living (LFL) in Downtown LA, and City Hall has done absolutely nothing about it. The project was approved back in 2013 as 303 residential condominiums and 7 commercial condominiums. But when it actually opened, the units were being offered not as condos but for extended stays. Again, this is legal, because the guests are staying for longer than 30 days. But last year the LA Weekly reported that the units were being offered for short-term stays. In other words, they’d become hotel rooms. This is not legal.

And what has the City of LA done about it? Absolutely nothing. The owners of the building claimed they were working with the Department of City Planning (DCP) to get a transient occupancy permit. This may be true, but the DCP hasn’t approved anything yet, and the building is still operating as a hotel. In other words, while the folks at City Hall are telling us we have a housing crisis every chance they get, they’re allowing the owners of LFL to turn over 300 residential units into hotel rooms.

So what does the City have to say for itself? I was at a meeting last month where a guy from the City Attorney’s office spoke. He first told us that they just didn’t have the staff to go after illegal short-term rentals (STRs). He went on to say these cases were really difficult because the City had to send inspectors out to the site to actually see that there were guests who were staying there illegally. This was tricky, because inspectors worked during the day, and tourists were usually only in their rooms at night. So, according to him, the City’s hands were tied.

What rubbish.

How hard is it to find evidence that LFL is offering units as hotel rooms? I just went to Hotels.com and did a search. It came up right away. I punched in some dates and found I could stay there for as little as one day.

But is that really evidence? Even if they’re posting on Hotels.com, maybe no one has ever actually booked a room as a short-term guest. So I went to Yelp! next, and found these reviews….

“My family decided to travel back to LA over Thanksgiving. Since we are a family of four with two little kids we didn’t want to inconvenience anyone by staying in their home. That being said, since we had kids we needed to also have a kitchen and ample living space for our brief stay, enter Level Furnished Living.”

“I ended up staying at Level after a nearby hotel messed up my reservations multiple times and could not host me. The staff at Level were so accommodating and wonderful! We were given an early check in time and they answered all questions we had.”

“Last weekend I traveled to LA for a fun filled weekend of football. On Saturday I watched a great game between the Texas Longhorns and USC. The next day I saw one of thenew LA teams the Chargers play my home team the Miami Dolphins. Now even though those experiences were great, I had to give kudos to the place were I stayed. Which wasLevel Furnished Living!”

People do really seem to love the place. And I should point out that some guests who posted reviews had stayed for months. But it’s clear from these postings that LFL is offering units as hotel rooms.

So why hasn’t the City taken action? Back in 2016, when short-term rentals were becoming big news, City Attorney Mike Feuer held a press conference and announced that he was going after four apartment owners who had illegally turned units into STRs. But we’re coming up on two years since that press conference, and last time I checked none of those cases had been resolved. Feuer is good at putting on a show for the media. Not so good when it comes to cracking down on wealthy developers.

And would Feuer even have to file a suit against LFL? No. The City could start by simply sending a letter to the owners saying that the City had evidence that the building is operating as a hotel, and telling them to either shape up or face the consequences. If they failed to comply, then the City could open an investigation. I don’t care how short staffed they are. This isn’t a duplex where the landlord is making some extra cash on the sly. This is a tower with over 300 units in the heart of Downtown. It was approved as residential housing. The DCP keeps approving new luxury towers in Downtown, insisting that the area needs more housing. Why isn’t it cracking down on people who are illegally taking housing off the market?

Actually, the answer is simple. City Attorney Mike Feuer, Councilmember Jose Huizar and Mayor Eric Garcetti really have no interest in providing housing for the people of LA. They also have no interest in prosecuting wealthy deveopers, no matter how many laws the developers break. They’ll give you a lot of excuses, but in reality they just don’t give a damn.

Bottom line, the City of West Hollywood is taking action. The City of Los Angeles is not.

If you want to read about city officials who actually feel it’s their responsibility to serve the public, here’s the story from Wehoville.

AKA Appeals City Decision that Its Short-Term Luxury Rentals Are Illegal