East Hollywood WELCOME HOME

After nearly five years of waiting, the effort to transform a vacant lot in East Hollywood into public green space is finally back in motion. The proposed Madison Avenue Park, slated for a vacant half-acre lot at 1175 N. Madison Avenue, has been on the drawing boards since 2011, when the City of Los Angeles purchased the underlying property for $1.6 million. According to the website of the Trust for Public Land (TPL), the pocket park will be split into two components.

One block south of the Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue, where the controversial Hollywood Target remains a half-finished husk, construction has quietly started on another mixed-use development. Gemdale Corp., a large Chinese real estate firm, is partnering with Los Angeles-based LaTerra Development to construct a $125-million residential-retail complex on the former home of the defunt post-production firm Deluxe Laboratories. The project, located on a 3.5-acre site at 1350 N. Western Avenue, will be highlighted by a six-story building featuring 254 apartments - including 21 units of affordable housing - and approximately 4,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space.