According to the September 15 Downtown News, “A team headed by Fred Cordova purchased the 15-story, 600-room Cecil last May.” This tip led me to Bill Lanting of the Lanting Hotel Group, who specializes in “renovating and repositioning hotels.” A private liability company hired him to revive the Cecil.

The Cecil already houses guests in downtown Los Angeles, and will soon contain a comfort food restaurant called Tuck, the lobby bar Nip and a market called Marty. Lanting says they’re “at the mercy of the Health Department,” but expects Marty to open by October 15. He describes Marty as a crossbreed of a Famima!! mini market and Starbucks coffeehouse, with a limited menu of sandwiches, fruit salads and pastries. It’s designed for grab-and-go, but there will be seating. Lanting says Catherine Coan and Amy Price’s “very hip, contemporary design” will feature chocolate brown and strawberry daiquiri walls and the chairs will resemble “white dollops of whipped cream.”

Lanting expects Tuck top open by the end of October, at the earliest, with an upscale comfort food menu from Chef Tony Romano. Lanting describes Coan & Price’s design as “contemporary, upscale, a study of contrasts between darks and lights, with an incredible curving counter that runs down the length of the restaurant.” There will be white leather banquettes and “espresso brown” woods in the counter, banquette and chairs. Wood sculpture walls bookend the dining room, with a sandblasted 14-foot-tall tree that serves as an art element.