Anyone know what's going on with the 1960's era office building and adjacent empty lot on the southeast corner of Franklin & Vine? It looks like the whole block has been walled off in preparation for demolition/construction.

Do you mean Franklin and Highland?

NEW YORK, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Hooray for Hollywood! W Hotels
Worldwide, the fastest growing luxury hotel brand in the world, announced
today plans for a new W Hotel & Residences in the Hollywood district of Los
Angeles. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT), W's parent
company, entered into an agreement with HEI Hospitality, a hotel investment
and operating company, and Gatehouse Capital, a Dallas-based real estate
investment firm, who will jointly develop the property, which will be operated
by Starwood.
Located at one of the world's most famous intersections at Hollywood and
Vine, the W Hollywood Hotel & Residences will neighbor the world-famous Kodak
theatre, home to the Oscars. The hotel will feature approximately 300 rooms
and 150 W Residences, a signature restaurant, a rooftop bar, branded 9200-
square-foot spa and 25-yard lap pool.
"Hollywood has long been considered the heart of all that entertains us.
It's only fitting that we chose to build a W there," said Ross Klein,
President of W Hotels. "Our brand's heightened sense of style, design and
'Whatever/Whenever' service will mix with Hollywood's authentic buzz to create
the perfect L.A. escape."
The fifth residential project announced by W Hotels, the W Hollywood will
feature 150 luxurious residences, including one, two and three bedroom units
with spectacular views of the "Hollywood Sign". Residents will have all the
benefits of being attached to a W Hotel, including signature amenities enjoyed
by hotel guests and exclusive access to a private rooftop pool and fitness
center. Owners will have access to the hotel's facilities, including 24-hour
room service, daily housekeeping and concierge services.
"A project like this comes along once in a lifetime", says Marty Collins,
President of Gatehouse Capital, "and we look forward to greatly enhancing the
social design and economic fabric of Hollywood which has enthusiastically
endorsed our efforts. We fully expect to produce something entirely different
than anything currently in the market."
"We are excited to partner with Gatehouse and Starwood to undertake what
will be a very exciting mixed-use development," said Gary Mendell, Chairman
and CEO of HEI. "We believe that the combination of the W Hotel, W
Residences, and highly branded retail will make this Hollywood location highly
appealing to hotel guests and homebuyers alike."
The W Hollywood will offer W Hotel's signature Living Room experience, a
place where guests, residents and L.A. insiders will sip and socialize on the
adjoining outdoor terrace and rooftop club. The hotel's other distinctive
elements include substantial luxury retail space, 16,000 square feet of
meeting, banquet and pre-function space and Wired, a full-service business
center open 24 hours. Guest rooms and suites (including spa suites) will
indulge guests with W's signature beds with feather-top mattress, 350 thread-
count Egyptian cotton sheets and goose down comforters.
The W Hollywood, scheduled to open in 2008, will be the second W property
in Los Angeles, the first being the W Los Angeles - Westwood. Since its
opening in April of 2000, the 258 all-suite hotel has become the most sought-
after venue for Hollywood premieres and after parties. It's also home to the
newly-opened Nine Thirty restaurant and a spectacular 4,000-square-foot
sundeck graced with colorful cabanas which has served as the backdrop for
countless movie scenes and celebrity photo shoots.

About W Hotels:
W Hotels is a global lifestyle brand with 20 properties in vibrant cities
around the world. Inspiring and indulging its guests with thoughtful,
refreshing and stylish experiences, signature restaurants, bars and
destination spas, W has become the fastest growing luxury hotel brand in the
world. Each hotel offers a unique mix of innovative design, comfort and
cultural influences from fashion to music to art and everything in between.
Recent openings include W's first property in Asia, W Seoul - Walkerhill,
which opened in August of 2004 and its first property in Canada, W Montreal,
in October of 2004. Residence properties, offering the W lifestyle at home,
have been announced for Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Scottsdale and Hoboken. In
addition, there are more than a dozen W Hotels in the development pipeline in
city and resort destinations. For more information, visit
http://www.whotels.com.

About Gatehouse Capital:
Gatehouse Capital Corporation, founded in 1995, is a boutique real estate
investment and advisory services firm based in Dallas, Texas. The company is
a disciplined low volume, high margin real estate development firm that
specializes in highly designed upscale hotel and upscale lifestyle centers
with a hotel component. Gatehouse uses "best of class" institutional partners
to design, build and operate its properties. Gatehouse developments include W
San Diego, W Silicon Valley and W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences, the
first W Residences. Gatehouse is the largest third party developer of W
hotels. For more information, please visit: http://www.gatehousecapital.com.

About HEI Hospitality:
HEI Hospitality, headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a leading
hospitality investment firm which currently owns and operates 25 first-class
and full-service hotels throughout the United States under such well-known
brand names as Marriott, Sheraton, Westin and Hilton. For more information,
please visit http://www.heihospitality.com


SOURCE W Hotels Worldwide
Web Site: http://www.whotels.com http://www.gatehousecapital.com
http://www.heihospitality.com

^Hey has this Hollywood and Vine project broke ground already? The website says early 2005 but I dont remember seeing any construction last week when I drove by that area. Maybe I missed it.

Oops, my bad. Yes I meant Franklin and Highland.

Located at one of the world's most famous intersections at Hollywood and Vine, the W Hollywood Hotel & Residences will neighbor the world-famous Kodak theatre, home to the Oscars...

Is my geography off, or is this statement completely wrong?

The W and the Kodak are a mile apart. Creative marketing, is my guess.

Oh, that is soooo wrong.

As for franklin and highland. I haven't heard anything. The empty lot there has been fenced off for over a year now, but just recently, they extened the fence to include the building next door.

I too thought a few months ago that the proj already was under construction, but the press releases I read at the time either were being too optimistic or I misinterpreted them. I think what's really been referred to up until now is that the proj is at the point of being planned, meaning the devlpr is working on paperwork & financing. IOW, the owner prob is still months & months away from even signing on a proj contractor, much less bringing in actual bulldozers & cranes. LAB said he believed the proj won't be under actual construction until next yr.

^Well that answers that. Thanks citywatch. What about that slender tower on Sunset thats been fenced off for a while? Its supposed to be converted to residences right? Any info, renderings, website on that project?

^ You can expect that tower to remain dormant for at least a year.

GlobeSt.com UPDATE: W Hotel Confirms Hollywood Site
By Bob Howard
Last updated: June 7, 2005 01:17pm

HOLLYWOOD-The W Hotel & Residences chain has confirmed that it plans to join the $326-million Hollywood and Vine redevelopment project with a property to be jointly developed with HEI Hospitality and Gatehouse Capital. The property will include approximately 300 rooms and 150 W Residences, a restaurant, a rooftop bar, a 9200-sf spa and a pool.


GlobeSt.com reported last month that HEI had proposed the new W property, but the deal was considered a proposal only. The W chain’s parent company, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., has now signed a formal agreement with Norwalk, CT-based HEI and Dallas-based Gatehouse. The hotel will be operated by Starwood and is scheduled to open in 2008.

The Hollywood and Vine retail and housing project is one of the highest profile redevelopments in the city and is being developed under the aegis of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. The project area is a 4.6-acre site on the block bounded by Hollywood Boulevard on the north, Argyle Avenue on the east, Selma Avenue on the south and Vine Street on the west. It is near the Hollywood/Vine Metro Rail Station and landmarks like the Kodak Theater, home of the Academy Awards show.

The hotel will be the chain’s second in Los Angeles. Its 150 residences will include units of one, two and three bedrooms with views of the Hollywood Sign. Residents of the units will have access to the hotel, including the private rooftop pool and fitness center, 24-hour room service, daily housekeeping and concierge services.

Is that the one that caught fire last week?

I can't wait for this project to "break ground"~ Thanks for the update LAB

This isn't about Hollywood per se, but the Miracle Mile hood is sort of like the southern flank of Hollywood, & so it & hoods farther north, closer to Hollywood Blvd, go hand in hand.

The last few sentences should be interesting to ppl who are following talk about extending the Red Line through mid Wilshire, & news on how inflation in the cost of devlpt locally & worldwide is slowing down timetables & proposals:


LA Business Journal, June 13, 2005

Transformation of Miracle Mile

By ANDY FIXMER 

L.A.’s Miracle Mile is attracting several large-scale projects that could reshape the corridor of museums and office towers. The city of Los Angeles has approved six Miracle Mile projects that would add 757 units of housing and more than 100,000 square feet for ground-floor shops and restaurants.

“It’s just ripe for development,” said Renee Weitzer, chief planning deputy for Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose 4th Council District includes the Miracle Mile. “There hasn’t been any good retail there and there’s a lack of restaurants, but the people living there really want those things.”

Some residents, however, are becoming uneasy about the impact that the development could have. Just to the north is Third Street, where the confluence of the Grove shopping center and several residential developments has added to the area’s congestion. There are also environmental concerns, given the area’s large deposits of methane gas. While some urban planners salute the trend among developers to move inward instead of sticking to the outlying suburbs, there is general concern among homeowners groups and others about the inevitable effect of the additional population. The development activity has also spurred new design guidelines.

“There is no elasticity,” said Bart Reed, executive director of the Transit Coalition, which advocates building more subway and light rail lines. “There is no more room on these streets.”

Rickie Avrutin, who lives in the same house on Curson Avenue where she grew up, worries about the high cost of rents, given the lack of affordable housing in the neighborhood. And she’s also concerned about the projects’ impact on the area. “The street I live on is a narrow street that is now used as a thoroughfare, even with the speed bumps.” Said Avrutin, a neighborhood council member. “It is bumper to bumper during rush hour.”

Weitzer downplays the potential for problems. “As these things come online, people are getting anxious about the added traffic,” she said. “Wilshire is still a good street. You know, there’s going to be traffic in this city and we try to mitigate it whenever we can.”

Running between La Brea and Fairfax avenues, Miracle Mile is home to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the La Brea Tar Pits and a bustling office district serving as a base for numerous media companies. But the strip offers few amenities for residents in the neighborhoods to the north and south. Office workers clog the artery during the day but leave it relatively empty at night. City planners have pushed for more housing, especially projects with shops and restaurants on the ground floor. That’s where planners believe the added traffic and density can be more easily absorbed.

“We’ve been looking for a site close to the Miracle Mile for a long time,” said Larry Scott, senior vice president in the Newport Beach office of AvalonBay Communities Inc., which is developing a six-story, 123-unit building with 10,000 square feet of retail. “It has very desirable characteristics.”

AvalonBay intends to rent apartments for about $1,500 a month for a one-bedroom to $3,000 for a three-bedroom unit. “We think those are very attainable rates for that area,” he said. “There’s a lot of demand from people who want to live there.”

Retail rise and fall

The Miracle Mile was developed in the 1920s as Wilshire Boulevard was being extended from downtown to the UCLA campus in Westwood Village and on to the ocean. As the rise of the automobile began to decentralize business in Los Angeles, downtown realtor A.W. Ross developed the commercial strip on the site of a vast oil field. By the end of World War II, Ross’s development attracted upscale department stores, including Desmonds, Broadway, Phelps-Terkel and May Co. But the district began to lose its luster as new areas further west began to open.

“It was what they called a red-line district,” said developer Jerry Snyder, who bought a number of properties in the area in the 1980s. “Lenders wouldn’t lend there and people were moving out.”

Still, Snyder thought the area’s central location could bring people back. He revamped the Museum Square building, home to the Screen Actors Guild, and across the street, built the 1 million-square-foot Wilshire Courtyard buildings, where the Los Angeles Business Journal is located. Snyder also bought and renovated the former CalFed tower at Wilshire Boulevard and Masselin Avenue, which he sold earlier this year to Arden Realty Inc. for about $93 million after signing a large lease to Viacom Inc. that brought the building to nearly full occupancy.

Starting at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Highland Avenue and moving west, some of the large projects under way include:

• Chandler Partners has nearly completed construction on a two-building, 104-unit apartment complex at Wilshire Boulevard and Detroit Street that includes an existing ground-floor store in its design.

• Legacy Partners last month received approval to build a 197-unit condo that includes nearly 34,000 square feet of ground floor retail. The developer could begin construction this summer, which first requires razing the site – a former Office Depot store.

• Publicly traded apartment developer BRE Inc. has approvals for a 288-unit, six-story building on a city block bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, Eighth Street, Hauser Boulevard and Ridgeley Drive.

• J.H. Snyder Co. is building a one-story replacement building for Office Depot at the northeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Masselin Avenue.

• Developer David Schwartzman has approvals to convert a small office building at Wilshire Boulevard and Ogden Drive into 45 apartments, though it’s unclear if he will proceed or convert the project to for-sale units.

Construction can be long and costly because of the high water table and deposits of methane gas and crude oil. Developers have to build extra-thick reinforced foundations to withstand pressure from the water table. They also have to install special methane gas venting systems. The gas is filtered and then siphoned through a vent in the roof of the building. “It’s not like an oil refinery where you have a constantly burning flame that burns off the gas,” said Scott, the AvalonBay developer, who said the building’s residents wouldn’t notice the methane being vented from underneath the building. “You won’t smell or see it.”

Still, as AvalonBay was digging out the site for the building’s foundation and underground parking, the developer had to pump out ground water. The water was laced with sulfur, and when it mixed with the air released a rotten smell. Many Miracle Mile office buildings have to regularly pump oil out their elevator bays and underground garages. The weight of the buildings often pushes oil to the surface.

“It’s just one of the quirks,” Snyder said. “Every now and then you have to bring in someone to pump out the tar.”

Those conditions can lead to budget overruns. Even Snyder is having trouble with his Office Depot development, where the cost of construction has doubled to $7 million.

^ I wonder if LA is the only city in the world that seems to let "little" obstacles get in the way of development.

I mean, all I hear is "Let's stop development because of the potential traffic increases!" Well, how about something a little smarter fuckers? How about SMART GROWTH? How about continuing with development but adding mass transit to the picture? Where's the demand for that?

So there are some methane gas pockets? Did obstacles like bedrock stop NYC from building their subway? Did an ocean stop Hong Kong from building the world's most advanced airport? Did England and France give a damn that an channel separated them?

We here in LA had better start demanding the best. I forget where I read it, but some pundit stated that LA used to be a city with endless bounds and great ambitions, now we're a mediocre society that gets excited over small "achievements." The city is only as good as its people. That's why I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad AV is our mayor because AT LEAST he's been TRYING to live a little larger than people who say "Oh, it can't be done because of this or that." To those I say "SHUT THE FUCK UP!!"

In the same issue of the LA Business Journal, there was an article about architect firms switching from designing office buildings to residential buildings, because of the change in demand for the two.

Anyway, it spotlighted the firm that designed the MGM Tower, Fox, and SunAmerica buildings in Century City. Basically, the guy who designed those has been hired to design the Nederlander development at Hollywood/Vine -- you know, the development across the street from the W Hotel development and next to the Pantages Theatre.

They asked him for a description of the plans, and he said it was too early, but that he had a lot of ideas. He seemed excited about it.

He's also designing 2 (or 3?) residential towers in Century City, near the MGM Tower. That project was further along, and the reporter saw a big model of the project in the architect's office, noting that the towers were 4 feet tall in the model.

I read this at work (free newspapers!), so I don't have the article...

If the people care so damn much about the traffic then they should be living anywhere near wilshire in the first place. I dont even know how they would be able to notice an increase, the street is always going to be like that and they will have to adapt or move on out.

The problem isn't just them. They have a right to be concerned about their quality of life, which like most angelinos has been eroded by congestion. Many of these guys have seen wilshire grow from a suburban street into an urban thoroughfare. They aren't urban planners and should'nt be expected to be. The problem of our inability to build rail stems from their attitudes, attitudes which in turn ultimately stem from their built environment.

we're witnessing a failure of american democracy. It's human nature to shoot ourselves in the foot because frankly, individuals can't know what's best for society. LA's homeowners associations and the free market that led to sprawl is testament to this.

DJM had a good point.

Then edluva came with an even better synopsis.

You guys made my day just knowing other people are that intelligent.:)

Even if we build rail, I dont see that making the traffic less of a problem on that street. It seems inevitable that the street will only get worse with time and a subway under it will slow down the problem but not stop it. We are a car culture.

Obviously, the only way LA has to grow is UP. There are several options that we can use to accomodate the growth:

1) We can build more freeways at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. These freeways will do nothing to lure us out of our cars, will increase pollution, and eventually will fill up with more of the aforementioned cars. Neighborhoods will be destroyed and divided.

2) We can do nothing at all. We've seen years of doing too little and doing nothing. We've gone as far as we can with this. "If you don't build it, they won't come" obviously hasn't been the case with LA. We didn't build "it" [or we built very little of "it" --infrastructure, that is] and they still came. Homes are unaffordable, traffic is horrible, quality of life is down the toilet.

3) We can put a moratorium on growth. High cost of housing, overcrowded conditions, economic stagnation.

4) We can build more mass transit. The only way to get people out of their cars is to build more subways, light rail, and commuter rail. Each individual project as a single entity may not be the all-encompassing solution to the problem of traffic, but taken as part of the whole, it puts a significant dent in the problem. Every mile of rail laid adds exponentially to the trips taken on transit. It helps make rail travel more convenient for people along the route. A subway extension along Wilshire will not only be useful for those that commute to Wilshire, but it connects that region with the rest of the Metro Rail system. Someone living or working there can now travel to/from Long Beach, Pasadena, East LA, Woodland Hills, Norwalk, Hollywood. This is the only real way to accomodate the growth that LA will experience over the next couple decades.

It isn't about solving traffic DMJ. It's about providing an ALTERNATIVE to the car. Do you think the subway has solved the traffic problems in Manhattan? No. But people can still get around easily with the subway, which is what LA needs.

which is exactly why I hate these nimbys. They complain about new development because of traffic and then they complain about developing public transit (or dont use it).