Another high-rise is headed for the Los Angeles planning pipeline in Hollywood. Galaxy Commercial Holdings filed an application Wednesday with the city's Planning Department to build a 27-story apartment tower at 6409 Sunset Boulevard, Urbanize LA reported.
The roughly half-acre property, home to a fast food restaurant near the Cinerama Dome, was once slated for an Art Deco hotel tower. Those plans are now off the table, according to Urbanize LA.
What's proposed
The new plan calls for 239 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments above about 6,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, with parking for 227 vehicles, Urbanize LA reported.
The developer is requesting density bonus incentives to allow a larger building than zoning would otherwise permit at the site. In exchange, 37 of the apartments would be set aside for very low- and moderate-income renters.
SCB is designing the tower, with Relm as landscape architect. Renderings show a contemporary high-rise about 300 feet tall with a rooftop amenity deck.
A hotel that never happened
The Sunset Boulevard site has been through this before. In 2017, the Los Angeles City Council approved developer R.D. Olson's plan to replace a Jack in the Box at Sunset and Cahuenga boulevards with a 21-story, Art Deco-inspired hotel called Hollywood Ivar Gardens, The Real Deal reported at the time. That project was planned with 275 rooms, 135 parking spaces, a rooftop pool and about 1,900 square feet of retail. It was never built.
Now the current owner is betting on housing instead.
Not the developer's only Hollywood tower
The 6409 Sunset filing comes within a year of Galaxy Commercial Holdings winning approval for a larger project to the west at 6800 Sunset Boulevard, at the southwest corner of Sunset and Highland Avenue.
The Los Angeles City Planning Commission signed off on that project in February, Urbanize LA reported. It calls for a 42-story tower with 304 apartments and 115 hotel rooms, about 23,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, and a separate low-rise building with 80 affordable units for very low-income seniors along Leland Way. Both buildings would share parking for roughly 500 vehicles. In exchange for the affordable housing, the commission granted density bonus incentives allowing a larger project than otherwise permitted. Gensler is the architect, OJB is the landscape architect, and the main tower would stand 504 feet.
Approved, but not yet built
Both Galaxy projects would join a handful of approved but unbuilt high-rise apartment towers in Hollywood, Urbanize LA noted. A similar 28-story building was approved in 2019 to replace the former Amoeba Music store at 6400 Sunset Boulevard. The two-tower Palladium Residences at 6201 Sunset was entitled in 2016 but never started construction after the neighboring AIDS Healthcare Foundation took it to court.
That list is a reminder that in Hollywood, getting approvals and getting cranes in the air are two different things.
What comes next
The 6409 Sunset application is at the very start of the city's review process. Urbanize LA's report did not include a construction cost, a timeline for hearings or an expected construction start.
Why it matters for contractors
A 27-story, roughly 300-foot residential tower with 239 units, retail and a 227-space garage is a big job for concrete, structural, curtain wall, MEP, elevator and finish contractors. Combined with the 42-story tower Galaxy already has approved at 6800 Sunset, the same developer now has two high-rise projects in the works within a short stretch of Sunset Boulevard.
But contractors should keep their expectations in check. Hollywood has several approved towers that haven't broken ground, including 6400 Sunset and the Palladium Residences. Approvals, financing, construction costs and legal challenges can all hold a project up for years, and the hotel once approved for this very site never got built.
The smart move is to track the 6409 Sunset application as it moves through the Planning Department and keep an eye on whether 6800 Sunset moves toward permits. Builders who already have relationships with SCB, Gensler or Galaxy Commercial Holdings will be best placed if either project gets to the bid stage.