Updated 4/2: Last year, North Hollywood's Laurel Plaza shopping center (which is really just a Macy's and some parking lots) sold to a couple of local developers looking to put up "mixed-use retail and multifamily" housing on the 25-acre site. Today we have our first look at plans for what's now called NoHo West, via Urbanize LA. A total of 10 new buildings are slated to rise on the site, with 300,000 square feet of commercial space for stores, restaurants, a gym, and a movie theater. The existing Macy's will be reused and adapted into 500,000 square feet of office space, losing a 30,000 square foot annex in the process. Two massive residential buildings on the northeast side of the property, along Erwin Street and Radford Avenue, will hold a total of 742 units. Update: The Macy's is not abandoned, as previously reported; it's still a Macy's. Sorry, Macy's.
Ample parking will of course be provided (it's the Valley!), with an eight-story, 2,569 space structure along the 170 freeway and another 1,312 spaces sewn in with the apartments. New streets will even be carved out; one bears the deliciously appropriate name "Gentry Place." Developers are asking the city for a number of permits and a zoning change.
Previous plans for the site have been shot down over density concerns (it's the Valley!). As of the January 2014 sale, the Los Angeles Times quoted developers as saying they "would work with the community on a new plan," but that collaboration hardly seems evident today. Victory, Lankershim, and Laurel Canyon Boulevards all serve as commercial thoroughfares for west NoHo (WeNoHo?), but everything in between is modest single-family houses and dingbat apartment buildings. A Lutheran elementary school abuts the site. The similarly-developed area around the North Hollywood Red Line station is two miles away—not exactly a pleasant, walkable community.
No timetable has yet been set for NoHo West, but considering all that has to be done, you can hold off on renting that U-Haul for a while. —Ian Grant
· NoHo's Dated Laurel Plaza Shopping Center Going Mixed-Use [Curbed LA]
· Redevelopment Plans Emerge for Laurel Plaza [Urbanize LA]
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