Hollywest Delayed Again
A dispute over design and financing once again has set back the long-delayed Hollywest mixed-use redevelopment project in eastern Hollywood.
The partially completed $37-million project at Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue is to feature 100 affordable senior-citizen apartments on top of about 120,000 square feet of stores including a Ralphs supermarket and Ross Dress for Less.
Project developer Hollywest Promenade, headed by Los Angeles developer Ira Smedra, has stopped work on the residential component of the project.
Smedra said he needs more money to complete the senior-housing portion of the project, which the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency has agreed to purchase upon completion and in turn sell to Long Beach-based nonprofit Retirement Housing Foundation.
Crews have completed Hollywest’s skeletal frames, Smedra said, and are finishing up the parking garage while building out interiors of the retail stores--which can’t open until the residences above are completed.
The project already had seen a decade-long series of delays when it finally got underway about 18 months ago. But last January, the developer informed the CRA that the residential component’s construction costs had escalated well beyond projections--from about $6.5 million to nearly $11.5 million.
In March the agency received a letter from the developer’s attorneys blaming the cost increases on the agency and the housing foundation, according to a memo to CRA commissioners from CRA administrator Jerry Scharlin. The developer’s letter said $8 million beyond the original budget was required to complete the Hollyview Apartments.
Smedra told The Times the project’s design should conform to a budget established years ago. However, he said, the current budget is inadequate for the most recently revised plans his firm received last week from the housing foundation’s architects.
A spokeswoman for Retirement Housing Foundation, one of the biggest providers of affordable senior housing, said that she hopes construction will move forward soon.
The CRA has considered such alternatives as bringing in another builder for the housing component or paying more for it, but no decision has been made. The agency commissioned a panel of experts to recommend appropriate action, said the CRA’s Hollywood project manager Donna DeBruhl-Hemer.
Demand for affordable housing far outpaces the supply in Southern California. The first 60 affordable units in another development at Western and Hollywood reportedly generated 2,500 applications.
The Hollywest project is unusual in including senior-citizen apartments above retail stores, and Smedra is known primarily for retail developments rather than housing.
