Biltmore Partners

The stately Biltmore hotel and office complex in downtown Los Angeles is being sold for a reported $219 million to Japanese investors, it was revealed Monday. Biltmore Partners, a limited partnership, agreed to sell the Biltmore Plaza to T.A.T. Los Angeles Ltd., a partnership that real estate sources say is composed of two large, low-profile Japanese companies that own more than $1 billion worth of properties in Hawaii and California.

The mysterious buyer of the Biltmore hotel and office complex is Town Development, a small Japanese developer and owner of hotels, according to sources and a published report in Japan. Biltmore Partners, a limited partnership, said Monday that it had agreed to sell Biltmore Place, as the complex is known, to a buyer known only as T.A.T. Los Angeles. The owner of the Delaware corporation, however, was not revealed.

The mysterious buyer of the Biltmore hotel and office complex is Town Development, a small Japanese developer and owner of hotels, according to sources and a published report in Japan. Biltmore Partners, a limited partnership, said Monday that it had agreed to sell Biltmore Place, as the complex is known, to a buyer known only as T.A.T. Los Angeles. The owner of the Delaware corporation, however, was not revealed.

The stately Biltmore hotel and office complex in downtown Los Angeles is being sold for a reported $219 million to Japanese investors, it was revealed Monday. Biltmore Partners, a limited partnership, agreed to sell the Biltmore Plaza to T.A.T. Los Angeles Ltd., a partnership that real estate sources say is composed of two large, low-profile Japanese companies that own more than $1 billion worth of properties in Hawaii and California.

The final phase of the $200-million Biltmore Place project has been completed in downtown Los Angeles, adding more than 20,000 square feet of retail space to the landmark Biltmore Hotel and 380,000 square feet of office space in the Court and Tower additions. The retail facilities are located along the interior galeria of the hotel, as well as along Grand Avenue, 5th Street and Olive Street, according to Gary Stougaard of Biltmore Properties, owner of the property.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District is responsible for controlling air pollution in the area. It has the power to fine polluters from $25 to $25,000 a day based on such factors as the extent to which emissions exceed legal limits, the potential danger to the public, whether the violation was intentional or accidental and the company's history of violations.

Wrather Corp., acquired less than a month ago by Walt Disney Co., has withdrawn as manager of the landmark Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, it was announced Monday. Wrather has been replaced by the Windsor Hotel Group, a newly formed hotel management firm whose principals, Carlos C. Lopes and Eric Prevette, had recently worked as senior officers of Rosewood Hotels, controlled by Caroline Hunt in Dallas.

Several leading Los Angeles companies have donated $1.1 million to the restoration of Pershing Square, the historic park at the center of downtown, it was announced Friday. Officials with the Pershing Square Management Assn., a non-profit group organizing to raise at least $3.5 million in private funds, said the donations were made at a fund-raising party that drew 300 business and civic leaders to the Biltmore.

With the world spotlight on the Olympic Games here in 1984, politicians and dignitaries applauded a $600,000 face lift for Pershing Square, the venerable greensward named after World War I hero Gen. John J. (Black Jack) Pershing. On a sunny July day that year, thousands of bright balloons wafted skyward, and a 120-piece Olympic band played.

At 65 and resplendent from its recent $40-million facelift, The Biltmore is currently the focus of a month-long celebration that pays tribute to its enduring image as a first-class hotel, an architectural treasure worthy of its landmark designation and a repository of community nostalgia. Its history, a kaleidoscope of events intertwined with the city's own growth and milestones, is recorded in well-documented scrapbooks carefully assembled by generations of owners and managers.

While many hotels downtown and throughout the Southland are thriving, at least one landmark Los Angeles property--the Biltmore Hotel--isn't faring as well. The Times has learned that Westgroup Inc., the developer and a co-owner of the property, has given its well-heeled partner in the ambitious rehabilitation and expansion project a larger equity stake in the hotel, in part because the renovation project has been marred by large cost overruns.

With the drop of a drape, the Biltmore Hotel's new lobby mural had its public debut Monday night, and suddenly the reception room the painting now graces doubled in size. Or so it seemed. The trick was trompe l'oeil , the technique three artists used to create the illusionistic artwork. The occasion was the unveiling of the large-scale painting, inauguration of the Biltmore's newly restored and relocated lobby off Grand Avenue and a reception for restoration director A. T.