Hi Duk Lee, credited for starting Koreatown, poses with his wife, Kil Ja Lee. The businessman died in his Silver Lake home on March 7 after a six-month battle with colon cancer, according to family.
It was one of the last rides around the neighborhood her father helped build, his daughter said. The idealistic immigrant who paved the way for Koreatown to be the vibrant Los Angeles community it is today died in his Silver Lake home on March 7 after a six-month battle with colon cancer, according to family. He was 79.
. “I planned to make Koreatown. Chinese people have Chinatowns everywhere: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montebello. But there’s no Koreatown.” In 1975, he opened the VIP Palace restaurant, built using traditional Korean architecture, with imported blue Korean tiles. Later, the shopping center VIP Plaza would accompany the restaurant. Lee’s market and restaurant became places of community for many Koreans in the area, where they could socialize and hold meetings in a way they couldn’t before.
in the late 1970s to build the VIP Hotel, a 230-room, five-story building at 3000 W. Olympic Blvd. But with increasing interest rates, Lee began falling behind on rent.