CURBED REPORT--The other shoe has finally dropped for the tenants of the Sunset Gordon apartment tower (formerly The Old Spaghetti Factory), who have been worried they'll be kicked out of their homes since construction permits on the Hollywood building were retroactively invalidated last October: This past weekend, management left notes on apartment doors saying tenants have to be out by October 4, reports the LA Times. Developer CIM Group made the decision to evict after a second ruling last week sided with the ruling from last year. CIM says there are 51 tenants left in the 299-unit building, but there may be fewer.
When CIM began construction on the site in 2012, it was supposed to preserve part of the old Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant on the site (built in the 1920s and originally an auto showroom) and incorporate it into the new building. But CIM decided the building was too far gone, demolished it all, and promised to recreate parts instead.
Lawyer Robert Silverstein (who has sued to stop many dense projects in Hollywood, including the Target that sits half-built today at Sunset and Western) and his frequent collaborator, the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association (whose only named/known member appears to be a man named Doug Haines), sued to invalidate Sunset Gordon's permits—a judge sided with them in fall 2014, after the building was completed and tenants had already moved in. (A leaked settlement obtained by Curbed in 2013, regarding a different building, granted cash payments to La Mirada in exchange for dropping opposition to the development.)
For nearly a year now, tenants have been living unsure if or when they might be kicked out of their apartments, meanwhile paying hefty rents (tenants Curbed spoke with in April gave us a range from $2,195 to $2,700) and dealing with an illegal hotel operation—CIM made a deal with a short-term rental operator to lease out many of its units as hotel rooms.
Now CIM is working on getting new approvals, which could take quite a while; the matter won't hit the City Planning Commission until next May. Dozens of tenants have already been bought out and moved—a lawyer who represented 67 renters says CIM "did the right thing"—but everyone still left has now gotten the certainty they were looking for. And hopefully new places to live by October 5.
(Adrian Glick Kudler is the Editor of Curbed LA … where this piece was first posted.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 75
Pub: Sep 15, 2015
