Downtown Westin Bonaventure Being Sold to Taiwanese Investor Group : Hotels: Price is undisclosed for 1,368-room facility--L.A.’s largest--but one report puts it at $50 million--a bargain.

The Westin Bonaventure, the largest hotel in the Los Angeles area, announced Friday that it is being sold to Taiwanese investors for an undisclosed price.

Hotel industry observers said the Downtown Los Angeles hotel, whose eye-catching cylindrical towers and huge atrium have made it a favorite backdrop for movie and television shows, sold for an estimated $50 million, a bargain price that symbolizes the steep decline in downtown property values.

Equitable Life Assurance Society, which heads the partnership that owns the Bonaventure, has shopped the 1,368-room hotel around for several months before agreeing to sell the property to Forward Time Corp. The sale is expected to be completed by the end of September, Equitable said in a statement.

Forward Time is backed by Taiwanese investors who already own two San Francisco hotels, according to an adviser familiar with the deal.

The new investors plan to renovate the 32-story Bonaventure, which has undergone approximately $20 million in remodeling since 1990.

The hotel’s day-to-day operations will not change as a result of the sale, but it was unclear whether the Westin Hotel Co., which manages the 19-year-old property, will continue to run the hotel. A hotel spokeswoman said Westin and Forward Time are discussing the management contract.

Despite a prime location and large meeting and banquet facilities, the Bonaventure along with other downtown hotels have been mired in a five-year slump. The downtown hotel market has only recently begin to show signs of a recovery after the recession cut into business travel, while the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake scared off tourists.

In 1991, the previous owners of the hotel filed for bankruptcy protection after defaulting on a $75-million mortgage with Equitable, which ended up taking over the hotel with other partners.

The Bonaventure, which occupies an entire downtown block, was part of a string of hotels designed by architect and developer John Portman, whose flashy creations featured soaring atriums, glass elevators and rotating, roof-top restaurants.

The Bonaventure’s unique design and large size has also proven a drawback. Its circular hallways and bridges have proven confusing to guests as well as employees.

“It’s a complex building in a depressed market,” said a hotel industry consultant. “The size scares a lot of [buyers] but the price is pretty attractive.”