Movietown Square: Snazzy new affordable housing opens for seniors in West Hollywood

Yesterday marked the grand opening of the Movietown Square, a 77-unit complex from developer AvalonBay. The West Hollywood project holds apartments for low-income seniors, ages 62 and over.

Movietown tenants have access to resident perks such as a community room with kitchenette, a roof deck with an area for community gardening, a media room, and a gym. But perhaps the greatest perk is that the ground floor of Movietown Square is a 15,000-square-foot Trader Joe’s.

This isn’t a new location for TJ’s, but a return to an old spot. For over two decades, Trader Joe’s had been a tenant of the Movietown Plaza strip mall that was previously on this site along Santa Monica Boulevard at Poinsettia Place.

The strip mall was demolished to make way for AvalonBay’s new project, but Trader Joe’s was always slated to return as part of the development replacing the strip mall.

Designed by architects MVE + Partners, Movietown Square is the affordable housing component of AvalonBay’s adjacent 294-unit mixed-use development, AvalonBay West Hollywood.

The five-story Movietown Plaza complex was fully occupied at the time of its grand opening.

• Work Finally Begins on WeHo's Big Movietown Plaza Mixed-User [Curbed LA]