The Los Angeles City Council has voted to approve plans from a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm to redevelop current home of Amoeba Music with a mixed-use high-rise building.
Developer GPI Companies purchased the building at 6400 Sunset Boulevard in 2015, and has now received approvals to replace the 20-year-old record store with a 26-story tower featuring 200 residential units, structured parking, and 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The project would include10 apartments priced for lower-income households, according to a condition of approval. CGI Companies has also agreed to contribute $2.5 million to City Council District 13's affordable housing trust fund.
The tower, designed by Johnson Fain, would stand approximately 265 feet in height and include outdoor amenity decks at the roof and podium levels. Metals panels and signage would wrap the building's above-grade parking levels, obscuring them from view.
"GPI Companies is excited to bring this environmentally-friendly project with on-site affordable housing to Hollywood. We applaud Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell's continued and unwavering commitment to helping solve the City's housing shortage," said Edgar Khalatian, a land use attorney with Mayer Brown who represents the developer.
The 6400 Sunset tower has faced continued opposition from the Coalition to Preserve L.A., an organization affiliated with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. In an appeal denied by the City Council, the Coalition argued that the project does not meet the affordable housing requirements of the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan, a claim which was rebutted by both the applicant and a staff report by the Planning Department earlier this year.
With the project's approval, questions remain as to the future of the property's current occupant and former owner, Amoeba Music. Though it has pledged to relocate to a nearby site in Hollywood, the Los Angeles Times reports that a new home for the store has yet to be announced.
The 6400 Sunset tower will join a number of new developments flanking Sunset Boulevard, including an under-construction Godfrey Hotel immediately south of the Amoeba Building and a proposed 21-story tower directly across the street.
- 6400 Sunset Boulevard (Urbanize LA)