Steven Sharp WELCOME HOME

Way back in 2013, WEHOville reported on a presentation from Cohen Brothers Realty about their massive redevelopment plans for Metro’s West Hollywood Bus Depot. The sprawling 10.4 acre site on Santa Monica Boulevard would be anchored by a pair of high-rise towers containing office, hotel and residential space. Closer to ground level, the project would feature retail space, a movie theater, an open-amphiteater, and a 50,000 square-foot sheriff’s station. Since this project would replace an existing bus maintenance facility, Cohen Brothers Realty would build a three-level replacement garage underneath the complex.

Last month, the LA City Planning Commission unanimously approved the new design guidelines for the massive Village at USC. The $1.1 billion development seeks to reinvent the dilapidated University Village shopping center as a thriving mixed-use complex, reminiscent of Glendale’s Americana at Brand. Elkus Manfredi Architects, the Boston-based firm which designed the Americana, has taken the lead on the project, with additional work from Michigan-based Harley Ellis Devereaux. Updated renderings show a series of brick clad structures, centered around a large plaza and bisected with wide, retail laden paseos.

UPDATE: Documents from the Department of City Planning indicate that the new project shall be a La Quinta Inn and Suites. Get ready for some knock-off Mission style architecture, Van Nuys. Low slung Sepulveda Boulevard is starting to grow a little bit taller in Van Nuys. Back in November, the Department of City Planning received a proposal to redevelop the site of the 32-room El Cortez Motel. Plans call for the demolition for the parcel’s four existing structures, followed by the construction of a four-story hotel containing 73 guest rooms.

Bustling Koreatown has been on a building boom as of late, and a parcel just north of Wilshire Boulevard wants to get in on the action. “The Nest,” a self-described apartment-hotel development, intends to replace a surface parking lot at 621 Catalina Street with 75 hotel rooms and seven apartment dwellings. Residences and guest rooms would rise above approximately 1,500 square feet of ground floor commercial space, intended for a small cafe or store.

Multiple high-rise projects next to the Capitol Records Building were dealt a setback this week courtesy of the California State Geological Survey, but other Hollywood developments continue to make progress despite persistent NIMBY pushback. Near the intersection of Cahuenga Boulevard and Selma Avenue, plans for Los Angeles’ first Dream Hotel are officially back in motion. To make that news even sweeter, Five Chairs Development has asked the city for a series of zoning variances which would allow them to increase the project’s size.

Are you a low income individual who has always wanted to live next to a giant cemetery? If so, A Community of Friends has a project in the works that will be right up your alley. Lorena Plaza is a 49-unit affordable housing development, pegged to replace a vacant, Metro-owned parcel at the northeast corner of 1st and Lorena Streets. The five-story edifice would rise across from the 136 year old Evergreen Cemetary, which contains over 300,000 headstones and a lot of not-evergreen grass.

In Koreatown, it’s out with the old and in the the new, as developers lay waste to early 20th century structures to make room for new multi-family buildings. Next up on the chopping block may be a pair of 100+ year old bungalows located just south of 8th Street. A new proposal would level the structures at 831 - 843 Harvard Boulevard to make way for a larger, 67-unit development. This project, located at 837 Harvard, appears to be the work of the locally based Keren Investment Group.

Just 22 years after it opened, the Los Angeles Times shuttered its San Fernando Valley printing plant due to declining circulation. The property has lain dormant since 2006, but may soon see new life as a mixed-use development anchored by a toy manufacturer. MGA Entertainment, maker of the popular Bratz dolls, will relocate its corporate headquarters to the 214,000 square foot building at 20000 Prairie Street. The adaptive re-use project, designed by Brooks + Scarpa Architects, converts the stuffy printing plant into trendy creative office space.

Last summer, LA City Councilman Tom LaBonge began pushing for the repeal of SB 211, a law passed in 1991 which bans the construction of light rail on what is now Metro’s Orange Line busway. While a light rail conversion has become a popular cause amongst San Fernando Valley transit users, the reality is that the LA City Council has no power to overturn state law. However, it appears that Sherman Oaks Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian has successfully taken the fight to Sacramento.

Construction cranes have become a common sight in the Hollywood skyline over the past two years, and a newly proposed development from Hudson Pacific Properties would keep them around for the foreseeable future. Earlier today, the Department of City Planning released an environmental report for a new 274,000 square foot office building at 5901 Sunset Boulevard. The 18-story tower, designed by Gensler, would include six-stories of above-grade parking and 26,000 square feet of retail space at street level.