Developer Buys Sunset Strip Project Site
The planned $250-million Sunset Millennium mixed-use development in West Hollywood moved closer to reality this week with the builder’s purchase of the high-profile site on the Sunset Strip.
Developer Mark Siffin said he will file the project’s formal development application within days and begin the approval process for the two-block project along the south side of Sunset Boulevard west of La Cienega Boulevard. Plans call for a 370-room luxury hotel, a 200,000-square-foot high-end shopping center, and renovation of an office tower at 8560 Sunset Blvd. that once served as headquarters for Playboy Enterprises. Plans for a multiscreen theater complex that was part of an earlier design have been eliminated, and more office space was added to the plan drawn up by the Gensler architectural firm.
Siffin, principal of Indianapolis-based Maefield Development Corp., and his partner in the venture, investor Leon Black’s Apollo Real Estate Advisors, purchased the bulk of the two-block site this week for an undisclosed amount. The former Playboy building is in escrow, Siffin said.
The developers also purchased the adjacent former Petersen Publishing headquarters at 8490 Sunset Blvd. and will include plans to renovate and incorporate the 50,000-square-foot building into Sunset Millennium while developing an additional 175,000 square feet of new offices.
The site now includes the Western International Media headquarters complex, the Tiffany Theater, the Playboy and Petersen buildings and adjacent parking lots.
Siffin can expect substantial scrutiny of his project, the first major development formally proposed for one of the large sites targeted for redevelopment under West Hollywood’s Sunset Specific Plan adopted in 1996. Formal neighborhood meetings will be scheduled before the city’s Planning Commission considers the proposal.
But Siffin has garnered substantial support from neighboring residents and civic officials, said real estate broker Howard Sadowsky of Julien J. Studley Inc., who helped negotiate the property acquisitions. “The plan is marching forward with considerable positive feedback as we’re trying to address all the issues,” he said.
