Donald Trump said Saturday he and partners will raze the landmark Ambassador Hotel, site of Robert Kennedy's murder and a faded glamor palace, to build a major office, hotel and residence complex. The New York billionaire's plan and endorsements by Mayor Tom Bradley and two key city councilmen seemed to spell doom for the once-grand edifice, which closed a year ago. Residents concerned about vanishing cultural heritage had urged preservation of the hotel and school district officials wanted to buy the 23-acre site on Wilshire Boulevard for a badly needed new high school. The project, which was portrayed as in the earliest stages of planning, will probably include a hotel, office space, shopping areas and residential buildings, Trump said. The New York City-based real estate magnate revealed his investment in the project at a news conference in the East Garden room of the 494-room hotel, which opened in 1921. It was in an Ambassador kitchen on June 5, 1968, that Kennedy, a New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate, was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan moments after claiming victory in the California primary. Though it once counted U.S. presidents among its guests, and its famous Cocoanut Grove nightclub was a watering hole for Hollywood legends, the lobby area was now the only place fit for people to gather, Trump said. The hotel site was purchased last September for $64 million by Wilshire Center Partners, who include Irish real estate developer Robin Power and New York developer and investor Scott Malkin. Trump, whose involvement was rumored a month ago, was announced as the new managing partner of what is now Trump Wilshire Associates. He would not estimate the project's cost but anticipated no problem in financing it. ``I'll be investing a substantial amount of money in the project over a period of years,'' he said. ``I think we're going to have a very, very easy time getting the financing.'' The only specific structure envisioned by Trump is a 50,000-square-foot ``Cocoanut Grove Ballroom'' to fill what he said was the need for a really big ballroom in Los Angeles. It would be twice the size of the biggest ballroom here. The plan was firmly backed by Mayor Bradley, Councilman Nate Holden, whose district includes the Ambassador, and Council President John Ferraro. The officials characterized the plan as a way to revitalize the declining neighborhood a few miles west of downtown and link the downtown business district with the Century City complex on the city's west side. ``I believe it has great potential. This stretch of Wilshire Boulevard needs to be reborn,'' said Bradley. He noted he had asked the developers to help find an alternate site for a school in the area. ``Why did it take you so long to find L.A.?'' Ferraro asked Trump. Trump and Holden said the land was too expensive for a school, even if the Los Angeles Unified School District sought to acquire it through eminent domain. ``You would have the world's most expensive school,'' Trump said. Trump said it was ``very unlikely'' that any portion of the original structure would be preserved, and soundly bashed what remained of the Ambassador's character. ``This is not a good building to be in if there was an earthquake. It is an old structure and from the safety standpoint ... you wouldn't be allowed to build a building like this today,'' he said. ``Second of all it's not, according to most, the aesthetic building that really we should have at this site. It's so old and so dilapidated and so run down, and ... it's been leaking. ... It's really in very bad shape.'' He said virtually every world class architect was vying for the job of designing the new project and he expected cultural heritage buffs would ``love'' the result.
