The LA Live area via Flickr's Calvin Fleming

The local economy isn't exactly rockin.' But you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at downtown's skyline, which is starting to resemble an instant city in China.

The latest high-rise planned for downtown Los Angeles will break ground early next year and take the form of a Renaissance Hotel, developers have announced.

The 450-room venue will be at least ...

More »

Wilshire Grand

Wilshire Grand, L.A.'s tallest skyscraper, circa 2017.

Secret designs were just released of the Wilshire Grand, a 73-story, 1,100-foot-tall hotel/office tower/retail/phallic image that will be the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast and in Los Angeles, pushing out Library Tower (officially, U.S. Bank Tower) as the 10th-tallest building in America.

OK, another glass building on the skyline, big deal, it's only taller than Library Tower thanks to a 166-foot "glowing glass pediment and spire." Here's why you should care: the monstrosity is not only wicked tall, the hotel has a Sky Lobby on the 70th floor - giving the public staggering views of our metropolis. Perfect timing, since the AQMD has seriously slashed smog (2003 was the last Stage 1 alert.) Huzzah!

As incredible as it may seem, Los Angeles currently offers nothing higher than a measly 35-story ...

More »

WEHOville

Proposed project at Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards

WEHOville recently broke a jaw-dropping story that's causing a major stir in West Hollywood and could possibly impact any driver passing through that city on Santa Monica Boulevard, which is already a rush hour nightmare.

Developer Charles Cohen, who owns the Pacific Design Center and recently added the huge "red building" to the complex, has entered into a negotiation agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to possibly build a massive mall at Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards that could be bigger than The Grove.

West Hollywood community activists are alarmed -- they've been against over-development for years -- and candidates in this year's City Council race are speaking out.

For starters, challenging candidate Sam Borelli tells L.A. Weekly, "Is this just another train that has left City Hall Station and will be dictated to the residents that this is 'good for us'?"

More »

Related California

Grand Avenue residential tower

Read "Grand Avenue Drenched in Misdirection" by Tibby Rothman.

It's been promised for years, but developer Related California finally broke ground for the first private component of the multi-billion-dollar Grand Avenue Project in downtown Los Angeles, with mayoral candidate and City Councilwoman Jan Perry attending the kick-off ceremony.

Perry has been a protector and driving force of the Grand Avenue Project while it has swirled in controversy and delays.

L.A. Weekly has noted over the years that Perry consistently approved lavish public spending on the project, including tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for affordable housing units and a park. Now Perry, who's in full campaign mode to become mayor, can at least say more apartments are coming to downtown.

More »

Chinatown Community for Equitable Development

Walmart's Chinatown dreams seem to have come true.

Labor, a powerful force in L.A. politics, couldn't overcome the stumbling, bumbling suits at City Hall who decided to outlaw just such a Walmart a day after it got its initial approval from city planning officials. (Of course, it seems possible that the council wanted it this way so it could have its labor support and eat its Walmart food too).

In any case, the news is this: The Walmart is now on-target to open in March. Yep:

More »

Ted Soqui

Village Trailer Park resident Calvin Normore and his two sons.

See also: A Santa Monica Trailer Park -- and Its Senior Residents -- Face Off With Fancy New Development and Village Trailer Park Closure Decision Postponed.

Updated at bottom with a statement from Marc Luzzatto. The Santa Monica City Council finally approved the East Village development--a mix of apartments, condominiums, shops and office spaces in walking distance of the planned Bergamot light rail station--on Wednesday night. The decision, which green-lights the closure of a vintage trailer park home to many elderly and disabled Santa Monicans, brings to a close a saga that has spanned more than six years.

Fittingly, even the final decision didn't come quick. There were five hours of public comment on the matter at Tuesday's council meeting--so many Santa Monicans were determined to speak that the meeting was continued until Wednesday, when the council voted to approve the development agreement proposed by property owner Marc Luzzatto.

More »

AEG / Farmers Field

Reaction from the stadium's would-be developer is at the bottom.

The $1.5 billion football stadium proposal for downtown L.A. gained a bit of an advantage when California lawmakers granted it the right to have legal challenges to its environmental impacts fast-tracked to appeals courts.

Of course, other developments, including a competing stadium proposal in City of Industry, have had similar advantages.

That hasn't stopped a group called Play Fair at Farmers Field Coalition from challenging the fast-track legislation. Yep, only in L.A. will you see activists ...

More »

A.C. Thamer

Not the 2, but a cool photo nonetheless

Ah, the old State Route 2, once destined to become the Beverly Hills Freeway, now just a series of congested boulevards in L.A.'s core.

One of the most congested corners of SR 2 is where it meets the Glendale Freeway in Echo Park. Not where you want to be on a hot Wednesday afternoon, we can tell you that.

So Metro, L.A. County's transit authority, has BIG plans to make the zone, well, more freewaylike. You know, to improve traffic. Neighbors aren't happy:

More »

Katherine Johnson / Flickr

A powerful city committee tried to put the kibosh on plans to install a Walmart Neighborhood Mart in Chinatown this week when it voted in favor of a ban on large retail stores in what it deems to be a historic community.

Forces opposed to the baby Walmart were elated, but it appears that even if the City Council backs up the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, it could be too little, too late:

More »

Save San Fernando JCPenney via Facebook

San Fernando's long-lost siren.

The drama is once again on blast in the city of San Fernando, where an affair-gone-south between councilmembers recently turned City Hall into the set of a live soap opera.

This time, the estranged lovers are more unlikely: On the one end, we have JCPenney, who wants to cut ties with its historic old location on San Fernando Road. And on the other, we have community preservationists (backed up by the owner of the building, Sev Aszkenazy, and celebs like George Lopez), who argue that...

More »

Ted Soqui

See also: A Santa Monica Trailer Park -- and Its Senior Residents -- Face Off With Fancy New Development.

After hearing from an estimated 70 members of the public during a grueling six hour meeting, the Santa Monica City Council adjourned Tuesday night without any kind of resolution on the contentious East Village project--or the closure of Village Trailer Park.

More »

Jack Balingit/LA Weekly

The future is 40 stories tall.

As expected, the L.A. City Council gave its final unanimous approval this afternoon to a new zoning code that will allow for the Manhattanization/Blade Runner-ization of Hollywood.

Opposition to the plan has been long and loud. Hollywood preservationists are hoarse from screaming at city leaders, who defend the plan as a much-needed step toward modernity. But protesters claim these new rules were ghostwritten by mega-developers, and will lead to over-stuffed residential streets...

More »

Development Management Associates LLC

The Century City stop planned for the Westside subway extension is turning out to be a vortex of political intrigue.

Not only is it the place where a friend of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to build a 37-story high-rise (and note here that Villaraigosa holds sway over the Metro transportation board), but it's also the reason why the Beverly Hills school district is up in arms -- and suing: The stop would require tunneling under Beverly Hills High School.

Metro voted to put the station there anyway, but now one powerful force might be standing in the way of the project above:

More »

The fuming neighbors along Grand View Drive should really give the rest of L.A.'s neighborhood activists a lesson in how to sway the city to your cause.

They just put together this super-impressive YouTube saga, titled "We're Mad As Hell," to demonstrate what they consider to be an egregious lack of oversight by Department of Building and Safety on a series of nearby construction projects.

"I was subjected to four years of misery..."

More »

Save the Pickfair Studios via Facebook

"This is about as bad as it gets. Sorry to have to share this with you all."

One of the most gorgeous old silent-film-era relics in West Hollywood -- the Pickfair Studios, on a plot of land known as "The Lot" -- just got ruthlessly gouged by a demolition crane.

The redevelopment gore can be blamed on CIM Group, the real-estate investor who owns the historic cluster of buildings. Protesters led by director Allison Anders have been aggressively rallying against the tear-down since early March. But despite their pleas, the first of four buildings reportedly scheduled for demolition...

More »

drinkinginamerica.com

Sooo can I get some Valium in that California roll?

We always kind of associated Walgreens with crummy carpets and leftover Halloween candy on super-sale. (No offense, Walgreens. If it makes you feel any better, Rite Aid's worse.)

But not the new 23,500-square-foot Walgreens slated to replace the shuttered Borders at Sunset and Vine!

Apparently unaware that Hollywood is actually a skyscraper ghetto with rapidly diminishing foot traffic...

More »

Fairmont Miramar

A view from the Miramar.

In this economy, you would think that folks would just roll over and let the rich guys have their way when they want to expand and develop properties.

Despite L.A.'s wealth, it has a long history of challenging sprawl and growth. Some folks in Santa Monica today say the expansion plans of the beach-side Fairmont Miramar Hotel, which has hosted movie stars and at least one sitting president, are over the top.

A group calling itself Santa Monicans Against the Miramar Expansion says ...

More »

Remember when we told you, about a year ago, that East Coast film schools were pining for westward expansion?

Well in the case of Emerson College, whose mothership is situated in Boston, that day has come. On Thursday morning, Emerson officials, along with Councilman Eric Garcetti and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will be gathering in front of the patch of dirt at Sunset Boulevard and Gordon (right across from the Old Spaghetti Factory, which was ironically demolished in the dead of night last month to accomodate a new high-rise) for a groundbreaking ceremony. And for what do we break this ground?

More »

Developers of a proposed mixed-use strip mall that would stand at the former site of the famed Tower Records store on Sunset Boulevard hit the pause button over the weekend as opposition to the project, which would feature Times Square-like electronic billboards, grew to a roar.

Project spokesman Brian Lewis told the Weekly the proposal, withdrawn from consideration at tonight's West Hollywood City Council meeting, would be back on the table at the next one, which is April 2.

He said:

More »

Suriya Prasad

Old Spaghetti Factory, R.I.P

Just hours after a post on this very blog reported on a rumor that construction was set to begin on Sunset Gordon, the controversial 23-story skyscraper, bulldozers were brought in to demolish the property's existing structure overnight.

Sunset Gordon was the brainchild of Portland-based developer Gerding Edlen, who bought the property in 2006. City councilman Eric Garcetti midwifed the project through the city's approval process, helping it collect a record 17 exceptions to planning and zoning laws, before construction was halted by a lawsuit brought by irritated neighbors. CIM Group bought the property and its 17 entitlements in 2011.

More »