- Beverly Hills residents voted against Bernard Arnault's plan to build a luxury hotel on Rodeo Drive.
- Plans for the 115-room hotel included a ninth-story penthouse, private club, spa, shops, and restaurants.
Bernard Arnault's plan to build an exclusive luxury hotel on Rodeo Drive, Los Angeles' most famous shopping street, was scuppered after residents voted against the controversial development.
The boss of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH had hoped to build his first US Cheval Blanc hotel in Beverly Hills, adding to a portfolio of five sites in locations including Paris, the French Alps, and the Maldives. Plans for the Rodeo Drive hotel included 115 rooms with a ninth-story penthouse, private club, spa, shops, and three restaurants.
Arnault is the world's richest person, with an estimated net worth of $193 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Financial Times reported that LVMH had spent nearly $2.9 million on its campaign to win the vote.
"If the final vote count confirms the voters' rejection of our project, we will respect the outcome, and will not bring the hotel project back in any form," a spokesperson for LVMH told Bloomberg.
City officials approved the hotel proposal last year, with only one of the city's five council members voting against the project, but a union representing hospitality workers in south California opposed the development and gathered enough signatures to trigger a public referendum.
The union argued that the development agreement didn't include information about local affordable housing for hotel workers. The hotel also attracted opposition from the group Residents Against Overdevelopment, which said the hotel — set to reach 115 feet at its tallest — was "just too big and tall for our village" and would lead to traffic and drain the city's services and infrastructure.
The 5.7-square-mile city, which has around 35,000 residents, is already home to 16 hotels. Masa Alkire, Beverly Hills' principal planner, told The Los Angeles Times when the hotel was first proposed more than three years ago that the Cheval Blanc "is at the highest end, at a part of the market that maybe is not being met right now. This is supposed to be the upper echelon of hotels."
LVMH had said that the hotel would generate around $780 million in tax revenues for Beverly Hills over the next three decades. Under the development agreement, it said that it would also contribute a one-off payment of $26 million to the city's budget for services like schools and policing and $2 million to arts and culture.
"The project was revised to address community input and ultimately received overwhelming support from Beverly Hills residents, businesses, and civic groups," supporters of the project said.
Just under a third of the city's 22,160 eligible voters had voted on the proposal as of Tuesday morning. The results were tight, but just under 51% of people have so far voted against the development on the two measures on the ballot. Some ballots are yet to be processed, The Los Angeles Times reported.
"It is a sad day for our city," Beverly Hills Mayor Julian Gold said, per The Los Angeles Times. "While I respect the democratic process, I believe our community lost an incredible addition to Rodeo Drive that would have provided additional funding for vital city services."
"I'm devastated," Andy Licht, chair of the Beverly Hills planning commission, told The Financial Times. "It's a horrible decision."
The Financial Times reported that LVMH is expected to retain ownership of the property and could develop it for other uses like retail or office space.
LVMH already has 15 stores on the street, including Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Fendi. Other luxury fashion brands including Prada, Gucci, Yves San Laurent, and Valentino also have stores on Rodeo Drive.