Shaul Kuba’s CIM Group Kicks Off New Project On Hollywood’s Sunset Strip With Boutique Hotel

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The CIM Group is a Los Angeles based real estate development company, founded by investors Shaul Kuba, Avi Shemesh and Richard Ressler. Yesterday CIM announced it was partnering with the New York based Denihan Hospitality Group to bring their boutique James Hotel Brand to the West Coast.

CIM is developing a major mixed use project on two sites on each of the southern corners of the intersection between Sunset Boulevard and the La Cienega Boulevard in the West Hollywood neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

One of the two sites is a two and half acre lot zoned for 235, 000 gross square feet of development. CIM is now partnering with Denihan to create The James Los Angeles, which will be the first completely new hotel to be built in West Hollwood in 30 years. James Los Angeles.

This brand new hotel, which will open in 2016, will comprise two 10-story high hotel towers with a total of 286 rooms, two restaurants, rooftop and lobby bars and approximately 10, 000 square feet of meeting space – with spectacular views of the Los Angeles area.

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The site across the street is a 2.06 acre parcel zoned for a 290, 000 square foot development consisting of two 8-story residential towers that will contain approximately 190 apartments, with ground floor retail, an open air plaza and underground parking.

Shaul Kuba, Founding Principal of CIM Group said, “We selected The James brand as it brings an inspired guest-experience to West Hollywood and the Greater Los Angeles area, ” adding, “The hotel’s attention to detail and premier amenities complements the distinctive Sunset La Cienega project underway at this legendary Sunset Strip location.”

“We are excited to be partnering with CIM in one of the most prominent developments in West Hollywood in years, ” said David Duncan, President of Denihan. “CIM has selected The James as the perfect boutique hotel brand for this location; built with warm, modern design, and enriching the guest experience through authentic, local cultural experiences and intuitive service. As a brand, The James is mindful of the needs of our neighbors, and we look forward to becoming an integral part of the West Hollywood community.”

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The James Los Angeles will be the fourth hotel operating under the brand, joining The James Chicago, The James New York and The James Royal Palm, Miami.

CIM Group is a leading real estate and infrastructure investment firm that since 1994 has systematically and successfully invested in dynamic and densely populated communities throughout North America.

CIM Group draws on its experienced team of real estate, investment and finance professionals to identify and pursue investment opportunities in three primary strategic categories: repositioning and development projects in established and emerging urban areas; well-positioned operating properties in transitional and established districts; and infrastructure.

CIM manages three distinct portfolios, including opportunistic, stabilized and infrastructure funds, each of which are diversified by geography and type of property within that risk profile. Headquartered in Los Angeles, CIM maintains regional offices in New York, the San Francisco Bay Area and Bethesda, Maryland.

CIM’s three founders met by chance originally, in 1987 when two Shaul Kuba and Avi Shemesh, who were two friends from Israel, arrived on the doorstep of Richard Ressler to talk about landscaping his property.
Shemesh and Kuba both grew up in Herzliya, outside Tel Aviv. They served in the same brigade of the Israeli army and arrived in the United States at the same time. By the 1980s, Shemesh had a landscaping and contracting company and Kuba had an electrical business.

Ressler, who holds a law degree and MBA from Columbia University, had spent part of that decade handling mergers and acquisitions for Drexel Burnham Lambert, the firm made famous by Milken.

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