Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel owner Michael Rosenfeld has revealed his proposals to establish a sky-hugging property development adjacent to his popular hotel landmark, which real estate experts called as a radical move that would redefine the building’s immediate surroundings.

Following his departure from the initial plans of flattening the Space Age hotel in Century City, Rosenfeld had a change of heart and decided to unleash his $1.5 billion development upgrades for the property, which could prove to be the biggest real estate undertakings on the area in decades.

According to the multi-million dollars plan, hundreds of condominium and commercial units would be housed on two 46-story buildings that would be erected behind the famous structure sitting right on the Avenue of the Stars.

The almost total re-engineering of the property would bid goodbye to most of the hotel’s guest rooms as the developers would use up the space to make way for the proposal’s envisioned units of high-end condo suites.

Planners of the development project revealed that efforts would be exerted to inter-connect the existing structures to the planned twin towers, in which a substantial space of the hotel’s lobby would be dismantled and redesigned as an open area.

The blueprint of the complex intended such technique to encourage high pedestrian traffic between the property and its adjacent shops and plazas once the project has been completed, which Rosenfeld said should not be later than 2014.

Analysts said that Rosenfeld’s decision to retreat from his earlier vision of demolishing the property had resulted to favorable supports coming from property preservationist and even some amount of approval from the Los Angeles city mayor and prominent members of the local government.

Los Angeles Conservancy president Linda Dishman lauded Rosenfeld’s efforts and considered the developer’s turnaround as a form of victory for the city’s preservation campaigns for structures that saw completion in the 1960s.

Dishman asserted that in preserving the Century Plaza, which was built in 1966, the city was able to preserve as well the can-do mentality that prevailed in California around that time.

She said that the arc-shaped structure represents an architecturally and culturally significant era as she recalled that the hotel designed by the same architect responsible for New York’s World Trade Center has been visited by lines of known personalities and celebrities.

On a personal level for the ordinary LA residents, Dishman said that the Space Age hotel has been the site of their fond memories, where numerous weddings, prom nights and most other social functions were held.

The preservation activist said that her group would not lift a finger on the proposed addition to the existing structure as she clarified that they were unfairly mislabeled as anathema to growth and changes.

Dishman said that on the contrary, they welcome beneficial changes and development but their core advocacy is to preserve historical structures and properties.

Property experts said that Rosenfeld could now take comfort on the amount of support that his project is getting though they cautioned that he could still encounter stiff oppositions from residents wary of construction and congestion encroaching their immediate premises.