Fountain Avenue at Sweetzer was blocked briefly at around 7:30 a.m. today as firefighters and sheriff’s deputies responded to a fire at the Mirador apartment building.
Capt. Fred Salmo of the Fire Department’s Station 7 said it was a small fire in the parking garage and no one was hurt.
The Mirador, which is seven stories high and contains 32 units, was built in 1929 and has been empty for 10 years. Its owner, Jerome Nash, evicted tenants after failing to get city approval for his proposals to renovate the building and convert it to condominiums or a hotel.
Under the state’s Ellis Act, the owner of a building subject to the city’s rent control rules can “go out of business,” by evicting all tenants and leaving the building empty for five years. At that point, the owner is free to convert the building to condominiums.
The writer has the facts wrong. It wasn’t empty for 10 years – we’re going on year 6 now.
Hasn’t been vacant for 10 years. Where did that come from?
It’s a shame this beautiful building with such historic significance has sat empty for a decade. Politics, money, rent control, etc. It’s a shame and I believe there should be some type of law that forbids an owner of a historical building let it sit unkempt. Whatever the rules are…someone needs to bend, sell and let this building survive (whether it be made into apts, condos or a hotel) before something drastic happens and we lose this important bit of West Hollywood and Los Angeles history.
The only correct fact in this story is that there was a fire at El Mirador. The rest of the information about the Ellis Act and El Mirador is totally inaccurate.
With prices in the area rising faster than the temperature, I’m sure conversion to condo’s wont’ be far off …..