Another L.A. Comeback

But in its next incarnation, if developers' hopes are realized, the former Trinity Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles will be teeming with mostly young, hip and affluent patrons who currently gravitate to the Sunset Strip.

The Trinity's comeback is key to the builders' $30-million makeover of a defunct downtown hotel, later known as the Embassy, that contains the auditorium and was once at the center of civic culture. The landmark auditorium, part of a sprawling church complex that opened in 1914, will reopen in about 18 months inside the new Gansevoort West hotel on Grand Avenue at 9th Street.

The developers expect to hold concerts, performances and perhaps movie premieres in the triple-decked, 1,800-seat hall, decorated with the elaborate stained-glass windows and skylight that graced the original theater. Other historical details, including Italian marble and wrought-iron decorations, will be preserved as the theater and hotel are brought up to modern standards.

The builders are the Gansevoort Hotel Group, a New York company known for bringing the first swanky hotel to that city's Meatpacking District in 2004.

Downtown's hotel business is improving, industry consultants say, but the area may not be quite ready for a glossy boutique that charges upward of $225 a night, the Gansevoort's target minimum for the planned 170 rooms. By comparison, rooms start at $99 at downtown's Standard Hotel, where the rooftop bar is a thriving attraction.

"We don't mind being out front of the market," Gansevoort developer Michael Achenbaum said. "They called us cowboys in the Meatpacking District."

Today the neighborhood on Manhattan's Lower West Side is considered fashionable, and rising rents are pushing meatpackers to other locations, Achenbaum said.

To sharpen the appeal of the Los Angeles Gansevoort, the developers are building an addition on the south side that will house a spa and fitness center, along with a restaurant and bar that will look up into a glass-bottomed swimming pool. On top of the existing nine-story building will be an outdoor lounge and another restaurant under a copper dome that once housed a small concert hall.