Star Architect Norman Foster to Design Beverly Hills Complex

(Bloomberg) -- Star architect Norman Foster will design a mixed-use project in Beverly Hills, California, adjacent to the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria properties owned by the developers.

“It’s an opportunity to create a new, exciting subdistrict to Beverly Hills,” Jonathan Goldstein, chief executive officer of Cain International, the London-based investor developing the project with Alagem Capital Group, said in an interview.

Cain and Alagem paid more than $420 million last year to Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co. for the vacant 750,000-square-foot (70,000 square-meter) parcel, called 9900 Wilshire, west of the Beverly Hilton, site of the Milken Institute Global Conference and the Golden Globe Awards.

Including the historic rights attached to the Beverly Hilton site, the partners are entitled to develop 1.6 million square feet in total. The project, which may include luxury condominiums, a 134-room hotel, retail and public space, still requires approval from local authorities.

“We are thrilled to be working with renowned architect Lord Norman Foster and his incomparable team who have brought to life some of the most iconic buildings around the world,” Beny Alagem, CEO of Alagem, said in an emailed statement. “We look forward to collaborating with the City Council and the surrounding community to develop this landmark site.”

The project will “realize the full potential of this site and to help develop a remarkable mixed-use space worthy of one of the most beautiful and recognizable neighborhoods in the world,” Foster said by email.

Foster, winner of the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize, is known for his technologically advanced corporate and civic building designs. His projects include the Hearst Tower in New York, Beijing Airport and the building known as The Gherkin in London, as well as Bloomberg LP’s European headquarters in the same city.

--With assistance from Erik Schatzker.

To contact the reporters on this story: John Gittelsohn in Los Angeles at johngitt@bloomberg.net;Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Josh Friedman, Melissa Karsh

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