Say goodbye to Hilton name on landmark downtown L.A. hotel.

After a presence that spanned the last 42 years, Hilton Hotels Corp. next month will end its relationship with the Los Angeles Hilton & Towers on Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles, according to a spokesman for the owner of the property.

The spokesman, who did not want to be named, said that effective Jan. 31, the Hilton name will come off the 900-room property, ending a management and formerly an ownership relationship that goes back to the hotel's debut in September 1952.

The spokesman said the property's South Korean owner, Hanjin International Corp., will manage the facility, which is one of the premiere business and leisure travel hotels in Los Angeles County.

There is some speculation among local industry experts that eventually another hotel operator will be brought in to manage the property. The most frequently named potential operators are Doubletree Hotels Corp. of Phoenix and Omni Hotels, which is based in Hampton, N.H. Omni officials did not return a phone call for comment, and a spokeswoman for Doubletree said it is against company policy to comment on such matters.

Termination of the relationship between the hotel and Hilton was not unexpected. In late October the union that represents 450 of the hotel's 500 full-time employees revealed problems in negotiations between Hanjin and Hilton over a new management contract.

"Over the last week or so, it became clear that there wasn't going to be an agreement, that there wasn't going to be a deal," said the Hanjin spokesman last week.

Officials at the Beverly Hills headquarters of Hilton Hotels acknowledged the company will end its relationship with the property on Jan. 31. In response to a question about the company's future in downtown L.A., spokeswoman Kendra Walker said it is "always looking for opportunities" but declined further comment. Walker said Hilton is leaving the hotel because the two parties "could not reach an agreement" on a new management contract.

Exit not unexpected

One local analyst said that since Hanjin bought the hotel in 1989, many in the industry presumed that one day Hilton would be out and Hanjin would manage the property.

In the hospitality business, the owner more often than not hires a management company to run the hotel. In addition to managing properties, Hilton, one of the biggest names in the hospitality industry, also owns some hotels.

At one time, Hilton owned the Los Angeles Hilton & Towers, which began its life as the Statler Hilton.

"Losing the Hilton is a definite blow to downtown Los Angeles," said Bruce Baltin, who runs the local office of PKF Consulting, a hospitality industry consulting firm. "Not having a name like Hilton downtown does hurt but, if Hilton had its druthers, I think they would rather be downtown."

The spokesman for Hanjin did not directly answer the question of which party initiated the termination of the relationship. Most industry analysts believe that Hanjin wanted Hilton out.

Parent is diversified

Hanjin is an operating unit of the Hanjin Group, a South Korean conglomerate that is involved in many different industries. One of the group's holdings is Korean Air Lines. Hanjin International currently owns and manages two other hotels in the United States, said the spokesman.

Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 11 has held at least two protest demonstrations over the possibility of Hilton leaving the hotel and its 450 members who work at the property losing their jobs.

At the most recent protest, held at rush hour in downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 1, 36 people were arrested, including union president Maria Elena Durazo. All of those arrested were charged with misdemeanors such as obstructing traffic.

The Hanjin spokesman said, "All or substantially all" of the hotel's current employees will be offered jobs when Hanjin takes over the management of the property.

Talking to unions

"We are not trying to get rid of the union or any other union that represents workers at the property. We are currently in negotiations with all the unions that have workers at the hotel. Nothing has been settled in terms of seniority or other specifics," said the spokesman.

In addition to local 11, four other unions represent workers at the hotel but they have far less representation.

Most downtown L.A. hotels have struggled for most of the 1990s with an average room occupancy rate that has been around the 50 percent mark. The industry-accepted break-even point for most hotels is between 65 percent and 67 percent.

Because of the improving economy and the opening of the newly expanded Los Angeles Convention Center, the downtown hotel business has begun to pick up over the past eight months. In its latest industry report, PKF said occupancy at downtown hotels jumped 60 percent in October from a year earlier to almost 75 percent. For the first 10 months of 1994, occupancy rose 25.6 percent from a year before to 57.2 percent, according to the PKF report.