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The film studio 20th Century Fox began development of a 176-acre parcel of their studio land in 1957 to create Century City, a mixed-use complex of high-rise office, hotel, and apartment buildings; unfortunately for Spyros P. Skouras (1893-1971), head of 20th Century Fox, his company was bleeding money, due in large part to cost overruns on the films, "Cleopatra" and "Something's Got to Give," and could not follow-through with the development. Eager for an transfusion of cash, Fox looked for a "white knight" with which to collaborate or sell the project. New York real estate developer William S. Zeckendorf, Sr., (1905-1976), and his real estate company, Webb and Knapp, entered into the picture in late 1958; Zeckendorf negotiated a $5 million six-month option on 03/25/1959 to buy the project. During 1959-1960, he tried to sell his interest for $56 million, but could find no buyer. On 08/01/1960, Zeckendorf took the project over from Fox, selling 75 acres back to the movie company for studio use. He then found himself unable to raise the funds (an additional $38 million) needed to start construction, and himself began looking for a partner. He found one in the Pittsburgh-based Aluminum Corporation of America (ALCOA), a huge manufacturer of aluminum products, which had begun dabbling in commercial real estate investments at this time. ALCOA, which was looking for a high-profile building project that would highlight its aluminum cladding products, paid Fox $38 million on 10/23/1960. Webb and Knapp and ALCOA formed Century City, Incorporated, to oversee development activity in Century City. Century City, Incorporated, in turn, brought in Seattle-born, Los Angeles-based super-architect Welton Becket (1902-1969) to master plan the complex of office and residential towers. Becket hoped to make Century City a showcase of modern architecture, with long city blocks, wide boulevards, parks and buildings designed by a dazzling cast of star designers. Residential towers would occupy about 75 acres, with commercial covering 85. About 20 acres remained undeveloped as parkland. Becket planned for a hotel to become Century City's focal point, and recommended the architect Minoru Yamasaki (1912-1986, also a Seattle native) to design it. By 04/18/1963, Zeckendorf had sold his interest in Century City, Incorporated, to ALCOA, which now became the sole owner. In that year, ALCOA entered into an agreement with the Seattle-based Western International Hotels Company, to manage the 726-room Century Plaza Hotel. (Sources vary on the exact number of rooms in the hotel. In 2000, the Pivotal Group noted in a press release that the Century Plaza had 727 rooms. This included 712 guest rooms and 15 penthouse suites.) ALCOA would continue to own the hotel and its property, but Western International, then the world's third largest hotel chain, would operate it. Yamasaki produced a spectacular design that was completed on 06/01/1966. Later, Edward A. Carlson (1911-1990), the head of Western International, would collaborate with ALCOA again on a large hotel in Downtown Seattle, the Washington Plaza, completed in 1969.

When the Century Plaza Hotel came up for sale in 1998, real estate brokers considered it to be one of the prime hotel locations in Southern California. Los Angeles Times writer Ruth Ryon reported at the time: "Brokers say it is one of the most coveted hotels in Southern California, despite its dated exterior, because of its prime location--between Santa Monica and Beverly Hills--as well as its sheer size. It is one of only three hotels in Los Angeles that have more than 1,000 guest rooms and one of only a few Southern California hotels with 100,000 square feet of meeting space. In recent years, the hotel's owners also have spent $25 million to upgrade guest rooms, public spaces and the main entrance facing Avenue of the Stars." By 2009, new owners New Century Associates, LLC, began talking about demolishing the Yamasaki building for a a mixed use project containing a hotel, residential, office, retail, and public plazas, and open space; this plan was shelved when preservationists and others began to defend its elegant design as being historically significant. Talk of demolition occurred two years after the razing of the beloved Ambassador Hotel, which caused a long and tempestuous debate. On 02/11/2010, the Los Angeles Conservancy announced that it had come to an agreement with Next Century to revise the plan to save the hotel. The head of Next Century noted in a joint statement with the preservation group, The LA Conservancy, "“Preservation of the hotel could only be achieved if sufficient additional development was permitted on the site.” (See "Century Plaza Owners and Preservation Groups Announce Revised Development Plan that Preserves Hotel,"Accessed 11/16/2012.) Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Gensler, Marmol Radziner, and Rios Clementi Hale Studios were architects involved in the latest mixed-use redesign.

A luxury, 30-story tower annex--located at 2055 Avenue of the Stars and containing 297 rooms--was added in 1984. The Annex, later known as the St. Regis Los Angeles Hotel, was connected to the original Century Plaza Hotel via an underground concourse. In 1999, the Pivotal Group decided to market the tower as a luxury facility, separate from the main hotel. (See separate listing for Century Plaza Hotel Annex.) Renovations have occurred to the Century Plaza Hotel periodically. In preparation for selling the property, the Nippon Life Insurance Company spent $25 million upgrading the hotel's 712 guest rooms (but apparently not its 15 suites). In 1999-2000, the hotel's new owners, the Pivotal Group, announced a large-scale, $40 million renovation of the hotel; this included an subtle name change to the "the Century Plaza the Century Hotel and Spa." Alterations included renovating the 15 penthouse suites, adding an Asian-themed day spa, redesigning the 33 meeting rooms, renovating the lobby, building a 250-seat restaurant on the lobby's south end, and re-landscaping of the hotels 7-acre grounds, which contained gardens, reflecting ponds and swimming pools. In 2005, another new owner, Sunstone Hotel Investors, Incorporated, embarked on a rebranding of the hotel. Sunstone brought in the Chicago-based Hyatt Corporation to manage the hotel, and worked with a team of Gensler, Design 360 Unlimited and R.D. Olson Construction to remodel the Century Plaza again.

ALCOA owned the Century Plaza from 06/1966 until Fall 1986, when it sold it to an investment group fronted by JMB Realty of Chicago, IL. The JMB group did not hold onto the hotel for long, but sold it to the Nippon Life Insurance Company's NLI Properties West, Incorporated, subsidiary. NLI owned the Century Plaza and the Tower until 1999, when an investment syndicate led by the Pivotal Group of Phoenix, AZ, purchased the hotel and annex. Pivotal initiated an ambitious renovation to boost sagging room occupancy rates. A hot real estate market in Southern CA encouraged Pivotal to cash in its position on the Century Plaza. It sold the properties to San Clemente, CA-based, real estate investment trust, Sunstone Hotel Investors, Incorporated, in 10/2005, for about $400,000 per room, a huge sum. Sunstone, in turn, sold the hotel on 06/01/2008 to investor Michael Rosenfeld's Next Century Associates, LLC, and the D. E. Shaw group for $505,000 per room, a sale totaling $366.5 million. This sale occurred just before the stock market crash, and must have proven difficult for Next Century, as it had now overpaid on a property in a very soft real estate market. To recoup, they announced plans to tear down the Century Plaza and build an extensive mixed-use complex.

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