Less than a month ago it looked like Centrum Sunset, the project that would bring a David Barton gym, retail, offices, and a pocket park to the old Tower Records Site at Sunset and Larrabee, might be dead for good. Now it is dead for good, under totally different circumstances. How did we get from there to here? Back in early March, developer Sol Barket wrote a letter that made it seem like he was pulling the project off the table and subbing in a Walgreens plan. Opponents (who have been fighting this project for a long time) rejoiced. Who knows what happened there, but the West Hollywood Patch reports that "That withdrawal turned out to be only temporary as the project was back on Monday night." The city council was considering the plan for a second time last night; it had previously sent the developer back to the drawing board last September with concerns about the video signs and the traffic impacts.
But last night the council flat out denied the project. According to the Patch, the traffic impacts were too great: "City staff testified that the [Sunset-Horn-Holloway] intersection already has an 'F' rating and that during peak evening hours, 56 more cars per hour, approximately one per minute, would be turning onto Horn Avenue to enter the facility." But even the councilmembers seemed bummed about losing out on fancy David Barton--Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Prang called it "a wonderful brand of gym we’d be proud to have in West Hollywood." Public speakers were "fairly evenly divided" on the plans.
Barket says "We’re going to move forward with a long-term lease for the property as it stands today," so it looks like we'll be seeing plenty more of the boxy little Tower.
· City Council Rejects Centrum Sunset Project [WeHo Patch]
· Centrum Sunset Archives [Curbed LA]
Loading comments...