Nearly one-and-a-half years after breaking ground, developer Avalon Bay Communities is making slow but steady progress on the former Movietown Plaza development at 7300 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

The sprawling 2.89-acre complex, now known as Avalon West Hollywood, will consist of a series of low-rise structures featuring 370 residential units, including 77 reserved as affordable housing for seniors.  The apartments will sit atop approximately 30,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a large underground parking garage.  Trader Joe's, which had previously operated a grocery store on the site, has agreed to become a retail tenant within the new development.

Renderings from architecture firm MVE & Partners portray a series of colorful five-story buildings clad with a variety of materials.  A pedestrian plaza and east-west paseo will bisect the property, mitigating the development's large footprint with open space.  The project's largest building will center around an outdoor courtyard with a swimming pool.

The project, originally known as Movietown Plaza, was initially planned as a much larger development featuring a pair of 10-story residential towers by Los Angeles developer Alan Casden.  Following years of setbacks and fluctuating market conditions, Casden eventually sold the property to Avalon Bay in 2012.

Completion of Avalon West Hollywood was previously scheduled for early 2016.  However, the current pace of construction will make that goal an impossibility.