Revitalizing Places: How Hospitality Can Be A Catalyst for Community Change - Kara Bartelt, The Hoxton Downtown LA

Josiah: Every city has challenges. There's good and tough parts. But I do feel like there could be an opportunity for hotels to be a catalyst for change. I'm curious if you feel the same way. And if so, what might that look like?

Kara: 100%. And I think that that's what happened. There has been a part of the clue to how downtown Los Angeles has evolved. I mean, the Ace Hotel was like one of the first kind of major investments in hospitality. But in this part of Los Angeles, it's like kind of turning the tide. And it's more in Hoxton, doing adaptive reuse on historic buildings is a major part of that, too, for a city. And that's been 80% of the Hoxtons are finding that that building that has that history. And how do we kind of support that and not write something new.

Josiah: Is there something special in that adaptive reuse because you're, does it almost like reconnect to this is what was really magical about this place before?

Kara: Definitely. I think when you look at a building like we're facing just across the street, where you look at new buildings that come in, they're trying to honor that, but they have to do it in a completely different language because they physically can't do that. And it's like rewriting something. But when you're able to take a building like we're in and give it new life and give it a new kind of voice in the conversation of what you do in a city, it can cost more. It's a harder position to take. It's a longer process to take to open a hotel, but you've just got so much already sunk costs in that building, that space. And then I think people, not that we can't design buildings now to understand ways that used to work, but I don't think we design cities well enough right now to afford the kind of street presence that that other buildings do and afford the kind of walkable community that we all want to maintain, especially in an area like in downtown. So this building in particular, and it's downtown L.A., which I've had a part of what I've done the last 20 years in some form or another. It's so great because you have all of these different neighborhoods that really collide and overlap. So you've got different people coming here for different reasons, whether coming from a convention from from Iowa, from the Midwest. whether they're coming to just to go to the market that's down in Santee Alley. And then using a hotel as something, I think hotels are really special because you come into a space and you are open, a city, you're open to a new experience. You're coming in like you're ready for something that you're not going to have. We try to emulate a kind of feeling of a home, I think, when it's best in hospitality, and I think the Hoxton does a really great job of doing that. We want people to feel comfortable. We're not here, we're not formal, performing a service, like, up front to them, but we're making them feel comfortable. And then when they can do that in the space, and then they can be introduced to everything that we have around us, and they begin to appreciate that. And that's what comes out within the city, and that's why they're going to return to that city, and that's why they're going to keep coming back as well.

Josiah: I love that. I wonder if we could talk a little bit about some of the community involvement that you do because you're not only running this place, but you're not just kind of like hoping things get better. It seems it seems like you are an active voice and participant in the community. Can you tell me a little bit about kind of why you do that and kind of what that experience has been?

Kara: And that puts them in that larger context. We can control what we do right here. We can give that experience, but how do we play a larger part of the conversation of changing the city? Downtown Los Angeles has seen so much in the last few years, going through COVID and going through all of the kind of challenges we've had before and continue to face. But we have an ability here now to take the space and take this as almost a welcome card for the space. So one of the boards, as I said, on the fashion district, which is This edge up until the edge of our hotel, you know, around here, which represents a very diverse set of local business owners with a different even kind of physical context of that part of LA, even though it's two blocks away from what Broadway is here and the older historic buildings. But how do we look at how that whole section of the city grows? As far as the development standpoint, how we change the business mix on here, ultimately, yes, I'm looking at it in a way of like, how is it going to support our business? But how are we going to contribute to how those business owners and all of the business that comes into it as well?

Josiah: Because it feels very interconnected, right? Because if people are staying here, they want things.

Kara: Exactly. They come here, they go to our fashion market. They come here because they want to go just to the flower district. We're all part of the community. It's a community. That's all it is. So it's like, how do we make it the best, safest? How do we get the attention that we need from the political organizations that we need so that we can keep the focus and kind of making this better? And then I sit on the hotel association board. I mean, that's fascinating to look at how hotels across the entire city are having a piece of the conversation, whether it's just about hotel business or it's also neighborhood issues, how we deal with our making our employees, I think, are becoming Our team and everyone is something that's having a larger voice in the conversation of what we want to have working in hospitality industry. So how do we support them? And then the last bit that I'm working on is the L.A. Tourism Convention Board, which is that's fun. That's the fun, because it's now how do we participate on the entire scale of the city in providing and being more of a I see it really as being a voice. And it's this vehicle about how we talk about what we're doing here and then how we project that to the world. So more people can appreciate that and we can attract more people to be a part of our community and come back here and to visit.

Josiah: I'm trying to learn how the whole ecosystem works. And I feel like the tourism boards and people who are promoting destinations, you see all the links to the success of each individual business. Just to help us understand, what are some of the conversations you have? Can you give an example of like a recent thing that you're thinking about or talking about as a board?

Kara: The most recent one we had for one of our meetings was a presentation from the head of the LA Metro system. And I think LA Metro has such, if you ask anyone off the street, they're probably going to give you a pretty bad opinion of public transportation in the city. But it's actually a pretty fascinating system and network, and there's a lot of dollars that go into it. And it's fighting one of the toughest battles that it can, and it's not here to help in a human services standpoint, it's a transportation company, but it has all of these other things like a hotel that has all these other factors about it. So one is just knowledge for the entire LA Tourism Board of like, where is it going? How are these developments cluing in to help each of us? And then what are the things that we can do to impact that? And ultimately it's, we have to change people's mindsets about the city and we have to change people's mindsets about all these different things. So that's that messaging standpoint that is really important.

Josiah: Messaging is important, but you're also kind of working on the underlying things. It's comprehensive, right? There's no easy fix to this.

Kara: I love change. I absolutely love change. And I think coming through the last few years of what we're doing here, there's just been so much kind of weight to the economy and to how people work. The thing that makes me most excited is just, is seeing that change month over month, year over year, and then seeing how it's reflected within our business and with, by it being the guests that come in and the things that they talk about and they reflect upon to our team, the different things they get out of working in this industry right now too, that is different than a year ago, different from too. I get so many. positive feedback from those different elements. It's really tough financially, to be honest, like in particularly downtown Los Angeles. You know, there are so many factors that we're pushing against, but I think being someone who, and being down here in this part of the city too, there's just so much potential that we're seeing from all these standpoints that it's just, those are the things that are getting me really excited.

Josiah: That's awesome. Well, hats off to you for not only showing up every day and being part of that change, but getting involved in the community. I think that's so, so important. And so I appreciate you sharing your experience with that. Thanks for taking some time to record today.

Kara: Thank you very much.