A project website offers a first glimpse of The Albany, a hotel tower planned just west of the Los Angeles Convention Center in Pico-Union.

The project, which comes from Los Angeles-based real estate investor Sandstone Properties, would replace a currently-vacant building located at the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Albany Street - immediately west of the Harbor Freeway. Plans call for a 37-story building which would feature 730 hotel rooms, 63,000 square feet of banquet space, and more than 800 parking stalls.

The Los Angeles office of architecture firm HOK is designing the proposed tower, which would rise 480 feet above street level. Renderings depict a contemporary glass tower fronting Pico, with tiered roof heights leading to a podium deck along the southern edge of the property. Renderings depict multiple levels of landscaped amenities - designed by Studio MLA - with a street-level plaza fronting Albany.

Though The Albany is billed as an opportunity to better connect Pico-Union and Downtown Los Angeles, which are divided by the Harbor Freeway, the project's main impetus is the nearby Convention Center, where a lack of nearby hotel rooms has been blamed for lost business. A 2017 study found that there were approximately 5,300 rooms either open or under construction within walking distance of the facility, well short of the goal of 8,000 rooms that officials had set for 2020.

In addition to Sandstone, several developers have also sought to serve the Convention Center market, including Lightstone Group, which has received approvals to construct more than 1,100 guest rooms in a two-tower development at Pico and Figueroa Street. AEG is also planning an 850-room expansion of the J.W. Marriott hotel complex at L.A. Live, which is to be coupled with a $500-million expansion of the Convention Center.

Sandstone, which is based out of Sherman Oaks, purchased the proposed site of The Albany in 2017 for $42 million. The developer has an entitled project in Westchester, and is seeking approvals for two residential towers in Warner Center.