This week we're taking a look at the construction along the Wilshire Corridor, between the 405 Freeway and the Los Angeles Country Club. We'll refrain from calling this stretch the Golden Mile, as we can't handle the abuse from the comments. Previously, we looked at the new buildings popping up in the Miracle Mile.
Today's trip through the Wilshire Corridor begins at Wilshire and Gayley, site of the now empty, not long for this world, Hollywood Video building which closed earlier this year. So far nothing has been announced for the site, but rumors of a big new hotel moving onto the site are swirling around the neighborhood. Hopefully we'll find out more details when the project is filed with City Planning.
The other site, northeast of the Hollywood Video site, is the sad remains of the former Mann National theater. Regrettably, it's nothing more than a dirt lot with a promise of future development in the form of a pretty rendering on a wooden sign. So what happened? Paraphrasing what we heard, developer Ron Simms made it through the approval process but hit a snag as he tried to clear his conditions of approval. One of the conditions allowed the Bureau of Engineering (BOE) to ask for a street widening along the property frontage, which against the advice of the Planning Department, BOE decided to ask for. Now the project is stuck in bureaucratic limbo as a street widening would kill the project and BOE refuses to back down. A lone bottle of wine rises from the dirt lot for now.
Tomorrow, we go east!
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