Posted by Axel (12.80.9.87) on December 14, 2001 at 01:51:39:
Los Angeles Times
Friday December 14, 2001 at 01:03 AM EST
Sold! Ambassador Hotel To LAUSD
The Los Angeles Unified School District closed a deal Thursday to buy the old Ambassador Hotel and its 23.5 acres, ending more than a decade of litigation over the property.
"We actually own the Ambassador Hotel," attorney Richard Sheehan Jr., who helped handle the transaction for the school board, told news wires. "Title to the property is in the name of the school district."
The school district ended up paying $76.5 million for the Wilshire Boulevard property, most of it in the form of a $48 million deposit made in 1990 as part of an eminent domain proceeding, local wires reported.
"We really are looking forward to creating a world-class educational facility that leverages all the assets of the surrounding community," said school board President Caprice Young.
The storied hotel was a Depression-era celebrity haunt before Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y, was assassinated there on June 5, 1968. The various interim owners -- including Donald Trump, who wanted to build the world's tallest building on the site -- floated several redevelopment plans, but none panned out. The site has been closed since 1987.