Why Silver Lake’s Hottest New Hotel Took So Long to Open (Blame Katy Perry)
Hotel Lucile, a 25-room boutique hotel in a renovated Silver Lake church, welcomed its first guests on 14 September 2026 after a 15-year effort. Its opening matters to a neighbourhood that has lacked a designer hotel, and the restored building combines its historic features with a restaurant and leisure spaces.
The project was first proposed in 2011 by restaurateur Dana Hollister, whose legal dispute with Katy Perry and the Los Angeles archdiocese over a separate convent property led her to sell her stake in the hotel venture in 2017. Developer Casetta took over the church lease in 2018, but permitting problems, the pandemic and the specialist work required to restore the historic structure added further delays. The finished hotel includes a 96-seat French-inspired restaurant, a private bar in the former choir loft, and a plunge pool and patio where the church playground stood.
- Hotel Lucile opened after a 15-year redevelopment.
- Permits, COVID and a legal dispute delayed the project.
- The renovated church now houses a hotel, restaurant and plunge pool.
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Silver Lake is a neighbourhood in Los Angeles where the former church that now houses Hotel Lucile had stood unused for years. The project was first proposed in 2011 by restaurateur Dana Hollister, who later became involved in a separate legal dispute with singer Katy Perry and the Los Angeles archdiocese over a convent property.
Hollister sold her stake in the hotel venture in 2017, and developer Casetta took over the church lease the following year. Turning a historic church into a hotel required specialist restoration work, while permits and the pandemic added to the delays.
The building’s conversion brings a small hotel, restaurant and leisure spaces to a neighbourhood that has had few designer hotel options. Its plans also retain features of the former church, including a bar in the choir loft and a patio where the playground once stood.