Work on Echo Park PETA Building Slow as Injured Tortoise

Enlivening "downtown" Echo Park has been a slow process. The Mohawk Bend restaurant finally filled the former Ramona Theater in July, but some are still waiting for PETA to fill the space across the street once occupied by a mattress store (although they've had a creepy billboard up for months now). Whether you care about fur or not, PETA will be bringing 60 to 80 people into their new West Cost headquarters whenever they open (and those people gotta eat and maybe buy a t-shirt at the nearby American Apparel--and hey, the soon-to-be neighbors both love objectifying women on billboards!). Well, the buildout is stretching to years at this point--as The Eastsider LA notes, the animal advocacy organization bought the Sleep E-Z store two years ago. The PETA offices, to be named after one-time Price is Right host and "spay or neuter" king Bob Barker, was supposed to be ready last summer, "but the complicated task of reinforcing the building's concrete columns and installing new plumbing, heating and electrical systems delayed the project, leaving officials to predict that the Sunset Boulevard building would be finished this past summer." Well, that's come and gone. A PETA spokeswoman just says: "Soon."
· Echo Park's PETA Headquarters Still Work in Progress [The Eastsider LA]