Some life is coming to a bald spot on Hollywood Boulevard. A groundbreaking is planned "in the next several weeks" for an affordable housing building at 5555 Hollywood Boulevard, according to Tim Soule, project manager at MetaHousing, the LA-based developer behind the project. Normally, we might not track an affordable housing project, but this site is notable given what didn't happen here: A Whole Foods and condo building was proposed, and then shot down by locals who imagined a traffic nightmare on relatively-sleepy Garfield Place. More recently, people have used the corner as a DIY weekend swap meet. The five-story building, designed by local firm PSL Architects, will hold 120 units of affordable senior housing over 6,000 square feet of retail. And once again, there's been some recent resistance to the project, according to Soule, who said he believes it's coming from the same community group that opposed the previous proposal for the site. And despite talk of a park over at blog Hollywood Unbound, there will be no park on the site, according to Soule. The building will be finished in 2013, he says.
· Hollywood Whole Foods Turned Swapmeet: Now Affordable Housing [Curbed LA]
· On the Auction Block: 5555 Hollywood [Curbed LA]
Images via PSL Architects