BEVERLY HILLS, CA— Personal computer pioneer Beny Alagem has burst onto the hotel scene looking to leverage his entrepreneurial skills and business acumen to bring back the luster of one of the most famous properties in the U.S., the Beverly Hilton. Through his hotel ownership company, Oasis West Reality LLC, Alagem a few short months ago purchased the famed property from entertainment mogul Merv Griffin. Griffin owned the 582-room hotel since 1987 and it has been the host of numerous award shows, including the Golden Globe Awards, and other entertainment industry events. Regardless of its high profile status and ownership, the hotel has been neglected on many fronts— from its landscaping and pool area upkeep to guest-room and bath design to its current amenity offerings. Enter Alagem and a $40 million to $60 million extensive renovation strategy. “Basically during my entire career, I have also been involved in real estate,” Alagem told HOTEL BUSINESS® during an exclusive interview. “In Los Angeles I have some large properties, mainly in the residential area. The last two years as we looked at the lodging industry I felt there may be some light at the end of this tunnel, and as I saw that the values went increasingly lower, I began looking at some of the hotel properties in mainly the Los Angeles area. And then I heard the Beverly Hilton was for sale and being a Beverly Hills resident for the last 30 years and knowing the hotel and knowing its history and its prominence in the area, when the opportunity was presented to me I spoke with the Griffin people [about buying it],” he said. Alagem then formed Oasis West just prior to the closing of the transaction specifically for the acquisition of this hotel. The sale price was not disclosed but some published reports pegged it at approximately $130 million. And while he has been evaluating the lodging market for quite some time and has considered other properties, Alagem was lured by the opportunity of restoring the famed Beverly Hilton and bringing it up to par with the likes of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria, in terms of design, service and reputation, he said. “The first appealing aspect was the location of the hotel. The hotel is located probably on one of the best pieces of property in Southern California. It is on the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards in Beverly Hills. It is actually the entry into this great town of Beverly Hills,” Alagem said. “You don’t see many properties with nine acres in such an urban area. It attracted me because of its brand, because it is a world famous hotel and its history. And I saw the potential upside in bringing back the hotel to its strength as both being a business hotel with great facilities and being also a hotel where frequent leisure travelers come,” he said. To do this, Alagem and Oasis West is planning to invest into the complete refurbishment of the property— including its lobby, pool and spa areas, guestrooms, baths, exterior and restaurants. As far as renovation projects go, the task could appear daunting, but not for Alagem, according to industry executives and analysts who know him. Alagem, 51, in addition to being a former Israeli tank driver, is perhaps best remembered as co-founding PC maker Packard Bell Electronics in 1986, a company that changed the way computers were manufactured and sold. Under his leadership, the company grew into a $6 billion computer powerhouse and caused technology heavyweights such as IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Compaq Computer Corp. to change the way they sold their products to consumers. “Beny was one of the PC industry’s pioneers. He is a tough competitor and brought the low-cost PC through the retail channel,” said Benny Lorenzo, portfolio manager at Aspira Capital Management and former Wall Street analyst that has covered technology for more than 20 years. “He is a real entrepreneur, while other guys in the industry were just blue suits and corporate guys. If nothi
