Walgreens has agreed to sell the lot on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Crescent Heights Boulevard to the City of West Hollywood for $7 million.
The City Council will be asked at its meeting on Monday to approve the purchase. To date city officials have said they are not sure how the property will be used. It is nearly one acre in size, and its location on the south side of Santa Monica Boulevard makes it a very prominent site.
If it purchases the site, the city will be responsible for reducing the impact of dry cleaning solvent in the ground and of soil vapor that might be able to enter two housing units on Crescent Heights Boulevard.
While it is unclear how the property will be used, residents have repeatedly asked for more parking in the city and more park space, both of which could be provided on that lot. The purchase would bring to an end a 10-year effort by the drugstore chain to develop the property, where Walgreens had planned to build a shopping plaza with a drug store and other shops and 20 apartments.
After Walgreens acquired the property it upset neighbors by forcing out a number of local shops and restaurants and a church. Among the more popular, which moved to new locations nearby, were Marco’s and Tasty Donuts. Neighbors also pressed the city to demand that Walgreens and its developer, Pacific Development Partners, conduct an expensive and lengthy review of the potential environmental impact of the project. Some City Council members also expressed concern about the impact of the project and its design, given that it occupies a prominent place on Santa Monica Boulevard, which is West Hollywood’s “Main Street.”
The decision by Walgreen’s to try to negotiate a sale follows an announcement by the drugstore chain this spring that it was closing 200 of its 8,232 drugstores in the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The Council will consider whether to approve the purchase at its meeting on Monday night, which takes place at 6:30 p.m. at the City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. south of Santa Monica.
, An excellent idea: Build an “incubator” office building to house digital startups,
I believe there are zoning restrictions that would negate most ‘new idea’ suggestions for the lot.
[…] with Crescent Heights Boulevard in the heart of the city. The City of West Hollywood has negotiated with Walgreens to purchase that lot, on which Walgreens once had planned to build a drugstore and other shops and 20 apartments. The […]
Baseball field? Beach volleyball? Something fun to play and watch!
I see … And does your vision include an eleven foot chain link fence to keep peoples baseballs from entering traffic at that intersection?
Thanks Josh, for an outlook based on possibilities rather than prohibitions. The Crescent Heights / SMB intersection is a special place for many reasons already highlighted in the two Northside pocket parks including Matthew Shepard Triangle, The Transgender Memorial, a tribute to early AIDS crisis fasters who encamped there for several months, and commemorative trees planted in memory of beloved community heroes. The environmental concerns are real, but if they could “fix” the Faith Plating lot for housing, doing the right thing here to provide for a community use will be its own reward.
Above and below ground parking structure with the top floor being a public space/ park. The public space is covered by a spanning canopy providing shade below and a succulent garden on top.
……What kurpies said….
it is not that difficult to figure out the cost of the clean up. The city locks the property up with a deal contingent upon remediation of the toxicity issue. A soils engineering report will solve this. Probable cost for a thorough site survey is possibly around 50K at the most. Not a bad expense for a piece of property on SM and Crescent Heights. Almost all properties like this over the years have had some sort of toxins leaching into the soil. The question i have is why does Walgreens feel so generous to sell the property to the… Read more »
Wow! A billion gold coins could fall from the sky (floating softly to the ground atop little soft pillows – so there are no injuries or property damage of course) the same morning a cure for cancer was announce and many of the commenters here would predict John Heilman and John Duran would likely increase the cost to purchase the cure so high that even a resident of weho with a bunch of gold coins couldn’t afford. What is with these people?!? I have no idea what the actual value of that lot is compared to the $7million “deal” they’re… Read more »
Here comes, once again, the thoroughly disproved idea that WeHo’s population is increasing. Where does this zombie lie come from? It has remained within a narrow range, up and down slightly, over the 30+ years of our cityhood. When I see this repeated in someone’s arguments, I immediately doubt anything else being claimed.
Do we know what the approximate costs for a thorough cleanup would be? Surely we wouldn’t purchase a property without having calculated that? If we do decide to buy this lot we have another opportunity to have the discussion how we want to grow as a city. Do we continue to expand the car-centric infrastructure? Then we surely need more parking. Or are we going towards urban by increasing density? Then we need bike lanes, wider sidewalks, more adequate public transportation. We can’t continue to have it both ways. Correction on Robo parking: the current cost is $18 million, so… Read more »
@jonathan simmons. Sometimes when I read the comments on Wehoville I think all of you guys are members of the Republican party because cearly you know nothing about basic economics or the facts behind what you’re talking about. For example, the robo garage will cost the residents of West Hollywood next to nothing. Why? That’s because the city issued bonds to pay for it. What are bonds? That means the city borrowed the money, and it is going to pay what it borrowed back from the money it charges people who park their cars in the garage. Can’t get a… Read more »
IN APRIL OF 2010, JOHN DURAN WROTE:
“Building a parking structure between Fairfax and crescent heights is unlikely. Would require that some structures be demolished. Don’t seeing anyone asking us to tear down the Silver Spoon or French Market sites to build parking.”
Now Silver Spoon is gone, French Market is likely to be demolished—–and that parking structure will probably be built. Funny.
@Tom Good observation, but: 1. The $16 million robo garage (and the proposed under ground lot at plummer park) are for the purpose of creating “NEW PARKING SPACES WITHINp THE CITY AND FOR THE ABILITY TO TRANSFER THOSE NEW ‘parking credits’ TO NEAR BY BUSINESSES …. SO AS TO RELIEVE THEM OF HAVING TO DO IT. 2. Well the transferable parking credits was written right before John Heilman sneaked through a big 25 year plan for weho, that would give him the ability to get the zoning restrictions lightened to allow for all the new mega mixed use complexes we… Read more »