The historic Giannini Building in Downtown Los Angeles has a new owner: tech-founder-turned-real-estate-investor Daniel Negari, who paid $34 million for the 241-room Hotel Per La at 649 South Olive Street, working out to around $140,000 per key. The deal hands Negari a 12-story former bank headquarters at the corner of 7th and Olive streets that has cycled through several hospitality operators over the past decade.
Negari confirmed the purchase to The Real Deal, which first reported the sale. The seller was Waterfall Asset Management, which took over Hotel Per La as lender after the prior owner defaulted on more than $100 million in debt, according to the outlet. At the time of the sale, the property carried roughly $134 million in unpaid debt, per the same report.
The building itself carries deep local history. Designed by architectural firm Morgan, Walls & Clements, the 12-story tower was dedicated in 1923 as the Los Angeles headquarters for Amadeo Giannini’s Bank of Italy, according to Water and Power Associates. The building featured Neoclassical architecture, Doric columns, marble floors, bronze doors with coin motifs, and a gold-and-blue Italianate coffered ceiling — Bank of Italy would later grow into Bank of America, one of the largest financial institutions in the world.
From Vacant Bank Tower to Boutique Hotel
The Giannini Building sat vacant for nearly two decades after Bank of America relocated its offices, before undergoing adaptive reuse into a hotel, according to Wallpaper Magazine’s October 2022 coverage of the property. Sydell Group purchased the building for $39 million in 2016 and converted it into a hotel, per The Real Deal’s reporting. The property first opened as the NoMad Los Angeles, and its lobby lounge, Giannini Bar — named for the bank’s founder and preserving original 1920s marble and ceiling details — debuted in early 2018 with a cocktail program designed by Eleven Madison Park bar director Leo Robitschek, as Hoodline reported at the time…