W Hotel: Bring Press Junket Back to Hollywood

The W Hotel & Residences, under construction at the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Vine St, has announced plans to try to attract the 'press junket' phenomenon of movie marketing back to the industry's historic district. The intersection, which is well-known for its historic centrality in the movie-making business, has lost most of its significance since its heyday. Gatehouse Capital, the developer of the $350 million complex, declared last week that the building has been specially designed to accommodate those events, which are weekend-long marketing soirees used to promote a film and its stars to a glut of reporters.

For years, the majority of these gatherings have been hosted by luxury hotels in Beverly Hills, with about 90% taking place at the Four Seasons there. The ambitious effort by the W development is part of a larger trend in the attempt to bring components of the film industry back to their historical geographic roots in Hollywood. The biggest of these changes has been the Hollywood & Highland theater-shopping-entertainment complex down the street. That investment has almost single-handedly brought Hollywood back onto the tourist radar, and has prompted soaring real estate prices along the boulevard.

The design and construction features necessary for such a specific use however, are not simple. Many hotel rooms have to be big enough for camera and film crews to tape celebrity interviews, often with multiple extra-large bathrooms for hair and make-up teams. The convention floors must be wired for extreme electrical output and should utilize fiber optic cabling. All of these on top of the already restrictive zoning and building conditions. With respect to the adjoining historic Taft building, the hotel has a height limit of 15 stories. And built over a Metro Red Line station, the building must also conform to egress requirements for the underground station. Come November, we'll see if the Hollywood challenger can dominate the elite Beverly Hills incumbent.