WEST HOLLYWOOD : Warner Bros. Gets OK for Studio Overhaul

Warner Bros. Hollywood Studios has won initial approval for an overhaul of its West Hollywood facilities that will spare the historic Formosa Cafe.

The West Hollywood City Council on Monday gave its preliminary approval to a decade-long overhaul of the studio’s 11-acre lot along Santa Monica Boulevard. Original plans to demolish the 50-year-old cafe, whose regular customers included John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe, prompted an outcry that threatened to hobble the modernization plan. The plan approved Monday makes formal Warner’s earlier promise to move but not tear down the restaurant to make room for a parking garage.

Studio executives said the 73-year-old lot is desperately in need of new sound stages and offices. The overhaul would add four sound stages and two office buildings, along with more than 100,000 square feet of post-production facilities and two parking garages.

Local officials, who were anxious about losing their biggest entertainment-industry tenant, hope the project will spark the economic rebirth of the city’s down-at-the-heels East End.