Hip Palihouse Taking Over Historic Embassy Hotel

Four months after it quietly acquired the historic Embassy Apartment Hotel, Paligroup, the developer of vintage hip "urban lodges," says renovations are underway for a June debut of Palihouse Santa Monica. 

Paligroup's founder, Avi Brosh, is putting his "whimsical yet refined" touch on the 1927 building, which is just a few blocks north of the Third Street Promenade at Washington Avenue and Third. It will be kept as as a hybrid hotel-condo now billed as a "boutique beach lodge."

A spokeswoman said the Embassy's "historic design elements" would remain intact, but the rest of the hotel is being "completely redone."

Designated an historic landmark by the city in 2003, the Spanish Colonial Revival-style Embassy was built when families on holiday still rode the train into Santa Monica to play at the beach and hunt and hike in the Santa Monica Mountains.

SEE ALSO: Here's What the Miramar Hotel Looked Like 70 Years Ago

The Embassy will remain open until April 15, the spokeswoman said.

Hotelchatter.com, which reported news of Palihouse Santa Monica early Thursday, toured the new Brosh-designed spaces, and spotted "an old IBM clock on the wall in the kitchen of a one-bedroom suite, a Julia Child cookbook on the shelf and crazy cool wallpaper throughout."

Opening rates will range $350 to $1,500 nightly. Select furnished suites, with weekly maid service, will be available for three- to 12-month stays.

Paligroup owns Palihouse Holloway in West Hollywood and Palihotel on Melrose.

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