Mid-Rise Office Building Breaks Ground in Hollywood

With the end of 2014 fast approaching, construction has finally started on one of Hollywood's most controversial developments.

Earlier this month, the J.H. Snyder Company broke ground on 1601 Vine Street, an eight-story office tower slated for the former site of Molly's Burgers.  The $70 million project, designed by architecture firm Gensler, will consist of approximately 110,000 square feet of Class-A office space, a 2,000-square-foot ground-level retail stall, and 174 underground parking spaces.  The potentially LEED Gold-certified development is scheduled for delivery in 2016.

1601 Vine Street is the third major office complex to break ground near the Hollywood/Vine subway station since 2013, joining campus-style projects from Kilroy Realty and Hudson Pacific Properties.  Office development has thrived in Hollywood during the past several years, despite the overall sluggish performance of the Los Angeles market.  The neighborhood's most recent coup came in the form of media giant Viacom, which will consolidate its Southern California operations within 180,000 square feet of the Columbia Square complex.

Hollywood's office boom has been accompanied by equally impressive performances from the residential and hospitality sectors.  Houston-based Camden Property Trust is currently in the midst of construction on a mixed-use development directly across the intersection from Snyder's project.  West along Selma Avenue, local developer Five Chairs broke ground this past Spring on the 180-room Dream Hollywood.  Additional boutique hotels are slated for nearby properties along Cahuenga Boulevard and Wilcox Avenue.

Perpetually Stalled Hollywood Office Building Getting Active

Image credit: Loopnet.

Over three years after Molly's Burgers served its final customers, one of Hollywood's most polarizing projects is poised to emerge unscathed from development hell.  1601 Vine Street, a mid-rise office tower first proposed in 2006, is miraculously on pace to break ground before the end of this calendar year.  Last week, demolition permits were pulled for the pair of drab commercial structures that currently occupy the project site.  This follows construction permits for the new office building, which have been in the works since earlier this summer.

The eight-story, glass-clad structure will contain 112,000 square feet of creative office space, a 2,000 square foot ground-level commercial stall, and a five-level, 194-vehicle underground parking garage.  The Gensler-designed building will stand approximately 130 feet tall, adhering to Hollywood's historic (but non-binding) height limit.

The turning point for 1601 Vine Street came last year, when the locally-based J.H. Snyder Company took over development of project.  Although a bureaucratic hiccup towards the end of 2013 delayed a previously scheduled Spring groundbreaking, the city and the developer worked quickly to put their ducks in a row.  Snyder told Bloomberg earlier this year that he expects to break ground on the speculative development sometime in September.

Dissecting the Hollywood/Vine Construction Binge

Construction cranes, looking east from the intersection of Selma Avenue and Vine Street

Even on a sleepy weekend morning, construction activity was in full swing on the blocks surrounding Metro's Hollywood/Vine subway station.  Take a quick tour through five mixed-use developments that will soon add more than one thousand apartments, hotel rooms and over 300,000 square feet of office space to the rapidly evolving neighborhood.

Hollywood Office Building Probably Delayed Again

1601 Vine Street, designed by Gensler

In what may be the least surprising news ever, the long stalled eight-story office building proposed for 1601 Vine Street has suffered yet another delay.  Unfavorable market conditions have set the project back for years, but this time the culprit is Los Angeles' slow moving bureaucracy.  When the J.H. Snyder Company took over development of 1601 Vine back in July, they agreed to break ground on the project by April 2014.  However, no company will issue title insurance to J.H. Snyder while the conveyance of the property still requires approval from the City's Department of Finance (DOF).  The DOF has indicated that their approval of the transaction would be evident via their approval of CRA/LA's Long Range Property Management Plan.  But therein lies the rub: there is no set timetable regarding when the DOF will complete their review of the plan.  Thus, CRA/LA has extended the groundbreaking deadline until the later of 1) DOF approval of the transaction or 2) December 31, 2014.  After seven years of waiting, what's an extra twelve months on top of that?  At least the mixed-use project across the street still seems to be on track.

• 1601 North Vine Street, Non-Monetary Amendment (CRA/LA)
• 1601 N Vine Street, Assignment of Disposition (CRA/LA)

Hollywood Office Campus Finally on its Way

959 Seward Street

It looks like a long stalled office development in Hollywood may get shovels in the ground soon.  Back in 2012, a representative from the J.H. Snyder Company told Businessweek that their project at 959 Seward Street was coming back to life.  Applications for construction permits have since been submitted to the Department of Building and Safety.  Here is what Snyder has in the works, according to the project's environmental impact report:

...construction of a 241,568 square foot entertainment campus including 237,568 square feet of office space and up to 4,000 square feet of employee commissary space.  The Proposed Project would provide valet surface parking and 735 parking spaces in an eight-level above ground parking structure.  The Proposed Project is designed to be an entertainment campus to cater primarily to entertainment-type users for offices, editing and post-production.  The project would be developed with three structures: "West Wing", "East Wing", and the parking structure.

The "West Wing," tops out at five floors and 76 feet above grade.  The "East Wing," would stand four floors and roughly 64 feet tall.  959 Seward's total area has been upped to 245,000 square feet according to the project's official website.

Snyder has enlisted architectural firm Jerde Partnership for the campus' design work.  The two companies have previously collaborated on a variety of projects including the Vermont Towers.  Check out some of Jerde's other renderings of 959 Seward:

View of the project site from Seward Street

Bird's eye view of the the "Event Garden"

Close up on the campus' Barton Avenue entrance

View of the project from Barton Avenue

Overhead map of the development

The current state of the project site.

And for some bonus eye candy, here is a video flyover of the project:

959 Hollywood video from Jones Lang LaSalle SW Region on Vimeo.

Plans for the office complex have been in the works since 2006, but the economic recession has delayed progress up until recently.  Businessweek noted that the project is being built "on a speculative basis," meaning that J.H. Snyder had yet to sign tenants as of August 2012.  The company expects Hollywood's allure and central location to steer potential lessees their way, especially since there is currently a dearth of Class-A office space in the neighborhood.

This certainly is a central location for the entertainment industry.  Several film and television institutions are located within a 1.5 mile radius of 959 Seward, including Paramount Studios.  Businesses specializing in film development, editing and preservation line the stretch of  Seward Street north of Melrose.

One of those businesses used to be Consolidated Film Industries (CFI), a film lab that called 959 Seward home until 2002.  When the land was to be sold in 2005, it turned out that decades of film processing chemicals had leaked into the soil below CFI's campus.  The site was required to undergo substantial soil remediation, with over 85,000 cubic feet of dirt removed from the lot and backfilled with crushed concrete.

An overhead view of 959 Seward from decades ago, when it was still home to Consolidated Film Industries.

In spite of mediocre vacancy rates throughout the city, J.H. Snyder seems to be quite bullish about the future of Los Angeles' office market.  In addition to 959 Seward, the company has two other large office developments set to start work in the near future.  The company recently agreed to take over development of 1601 Vine, an eight story, 114,000 square foot proposal near the Hollywood/Vine subway station.  The agreement stipulates that groundbreaking must take place by April of 2014.

1601 Vine

Snyder also has plans for a 13 floor, 250,000 square foot office building on the Miracle Mile.  The company informed the Park La Brea News that they tentatively hope to break ground on the Museum Square Office Tower in 2014.

Museum Square Office Tower

• 959 Seward (Official Website)
• Hollywood Seediness Fades as Developers Remake Media Hub (Businessweek)
• J.H. Snyder Co. Acquires Hollywood Property for Entertainment Industry Office Campus (Businesswire)

Selma and Vine Moving Towards Construction

Selma and Vine.  Image from TCA Architects.

Back in February, Curbed LA broke the news that the long stalled mixed-use development slated for the southeastern corner of Selma and Vine was coming back from the dead.  Since then, 1540 N. Vine has slowly made its way through the permitting process and has now reached the plan check stage.

A close up gives us a look at some architectural details.  Cladding on the Vine Street frontage appears to be brick and wood veneer.  TCA's unofficial trademark is copious amounts of stucco, so this represents a welcome departure.

When completed in 2016, Selma and Vine will bring 306 apartments with ground floor retail.  No official word on a groundbreaking date, but late 2013/early 2014 seems likely based on where the project currently stands with the Department of Building and Safety.

This comes on the heels of the revelation that J.H. Snyder will take over development of 1601 N Vine, planned for the opposite side of the intersection.  Groundbreaking for the eight story office building is expected by April of 2014.

1601 N Vine

And all of this is located no more than a five minute walk from the Hollywood/Vine Red Line station.  The neighborhood around the station is seeing a tsunami of proposed developments, including the tall (and controversial) Millenium Hollywood towers, the Columbia Square redevelopment, and the twin 28-story Palladium Residences.  No wonder Hollywood NIMBYs are freaking out: this is their ultimate nightmare scenario.