West Hollywood’s Most Infamous Hole in the Ground Has a Shot at Finally Getting It Right

West Hollywood’s long local nightmare may finally (ok – eventually) be over.

Call it the Melrose Triangle – 3rd edition. Call it Lake West Hollywood. Call it what it is — the most infamous hole in the ground in City history. Whatever you call it, it’s got a new plan and a Zoom full of neighbors who mostly support the new and hopefully final iteration of this long awaited development. 

About 36 people showed up to the developer-hosted Zoom meeting Wednesday night. One of them called the proposal “one of the better or best versions I’ve seen.”

Project architect David Kim and land use attorney Kathleen Truman ran the presentation for the 2.7-acre triangular site at Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, and Almont Drive. They took questions for about an hour on parking, affordable housing, traffic, and the pressure to move fast before the City forces them to fill the hole back in.

The Hole Is Driving the Timeline

The City has directed the property owner to backfill the excavation pit that’s been open on the site for years. The development team is processing building permits at risk, running parallel to the planning review, to try to get the project approved before the fill deadline. Processing at risk means the developer is spending money on construction documents and permit applications before planning approval is granted — if the project is ultimately denied, that money is gone.

“The entitlements have expired, and the city has requested that we fill the hole,” Truman said. “That’s one of the reasons that we are processing the building plans at risk to try and get in and get something built in this triangle, and perhaps do it quickly, so we don’t have to take all of the dirt out again.”

A local art gallery owner directly across the street asked if that was actually the plan: fill the pit in, then dig it all back out again. Truman said yes, if approval doesn’t come first.

Victor Olmenchenko asked if the pit could be filled halfway and the subterranean structure built above it. It can’t. “We would have to excavate the material,” Truman said. “We need the big hole. But the whole point is getting this project approved and getting it built, so you don’t have a hole anymore.”

The Numbers

The plan calls for 282 total units, 216 market-rate and 66 senior affordable. The affordable units are in the Almont Building. Thirty-three are set at very low income, 15 percent of base density, and 33 at moderate income, also 15 percent. The mix is 61 percent one-bedrooms and 39 percent two-bedrooms.

On the commercial side: 96,000 square feet of retail, two restaurants on the sixth level at 8,500 square feet total, a courtyard café at 1,300 square feet, a courtyard food venue at 1,000 square feet. The project also delivers 58,000 square feet of common open space. The City requires a minimum of 2,000 square feet.

The project uses state density bonus law to reach a 100 percent density bonus. It also uses AB 130, enacted in 2025, for a CEQA exemption, qualifying because at least two-thirds of the new square footage is residential. Truman said it needs only a development permit and an administrative permit for outdoor dining. No general plan amendment. No specific plan amendment.

“This is Melrose 3, as I like to call it,” Truman said. “It really responds to the needs of the city for more housing. The last version had mostly office, which after the COVID pandemic is not as high in demand. This will respond to the city’s need for housing and provide great public spaces as well.”

The Design

The project has four buildings: a Santa Monica Building with ground-floor retail described in the presentation as a “timeless contemporary design,” a Melrose Building with street-facing stores, restaurants, and amenities, an Avenue Building, and a Gateway Building. Renderings show a mid-rise contemporary streetscape with retail at grade along both boulevards. An outdoor curated art gallery is also part of the courtyard plan.

Resident Robert Stelloff said he liked what he saw. “I think it’s a very good use of land,” Stelloff said, “and it’s one of the better or best versions I’ve seen.” He called the curvilinear design elements a strong choice for a site this size.

Jim Banks wrote in the chat that the project should’ve gone taller. “Instead of six to seven stories coming into residential R1 zone areas, this is the perfect location to build higher and denser on the commercial corridors,” Banks wrote. “It’s a shame this project is not taller. Let’s get this thing built. It’s been years of a completely dead zone.”

No Billboards

One resident asked whether the digital artwork visible in the renderings was actually a billboard. Truman was emphatic.

“Please, set everybody straight here on this one,” Truman said. “There are no billboards. There is no billboard permit application. It is artwork.”

She said the gateway renderings in particular tend to raise the question every time. “Every single time I see them, especially the ones from the gateway, my heart goes — no, no, we’re not doing any billboards,” Truman said. “We are really, honestly, a development permit application and an administrative permit application. That’s it.” 

Tribute to the Jones Cat & Dog Hospital

Olmenchenko, attending in his capacity with the West Hollywood Preservation Alliance, raised the question of the historic building demolished when the original project broke ground. The Jones Dog & Cat Hospital at 9080 Santa Monica Boulevard was designed by Wurdeman and Becket and completed in 1938, a remodel of Dr. Eugene C. Jones’s original 1928 animal hospital. Jones was a progressive veterinarian whose clients included Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, and Rudolph Valentino. The building was a notable example of Streamline Moderne architecture and operated as an animal hospital for decades before being demolished in 2018.

Wurdeman and Becket later became Welton Becket & Associates, the firm that designed Capitol Records Tower and the Cinerama Dome.

Parking

528 total parking stalls. None required by state law.

The project provides 198 spaces for residential use and 330 for commercial. One resident raised the parking concern that follows every large development in the city, a byproduct of AB 130, the 2025 state law that eliminated parking requirements for qualifying residential projects. Developers aren’t required to provide a single space. Some provide more than others. One resident said the numbers here still fell short. “You have 282 residential units and 198 parking spaces,” she said. “That means 84 units won’t have any parking at all, and if the two-bedroom apartments are a couple and they have two cars, they only get one space to park their car.”

She said the surrounding streets are already overwhelmed. “I live around the corner from this place. All I see are hundreds of people parking on my street, which is already filled with cars from all the businesses parking there. You can’t find a place to park on Rangely, which is one block south of Melrose, during the day. And this is just gonna exacerbate the problem that we already have.”

Kim said commercial parking would be shared with residents after business hours, with valet service helping manage demand. “We believe that controlling this parking situation, not segregating commercial and residential, we will be able to manage the parking,” he said.

Another resident wasn’t convinced. “It doesn’t appear that these are luxury apartments,” he said. “I don’t think residents will willingly use valet parking the way they do some projects in Beverly Hills.”

The Affordable Housing Mix

Olmenchenko asked whether all 66 affordable units really had to be designated for seniors. He wanted to know if the 33 moderate-income slots could go to younger residents instead.

“We’ve been having a big community conversation about workforce housing, about the kind of housing that moderate-income people, the new young ones coming into town, may need help with,” he said. “Wouldn’t the 33 moderate-income units be for 33 moderate-income new young people moving into this creative city who may need some help at the outset of their careers?”

Truman said the senior designation was the applicant’s call, tied to on-site senior services being built into the project. “I think it’s a soft spot in the heart of the applicant,” she said. She said she’d take the question back to City staff and human services.

Traffic

Marcus, who said he works on North Almont Drive, asked about a traffic signal at the Melrose and Almont corner. He said all three surrounding corners of the site already have signals and that drivers treat the existing stop sign recklessly. Truman said the team would work with the City and that any installation would need a signal warrant analysis. Wendy Goldman wrote in the chat that the entire intersection at Doheny, Santa Monica, and Almont needs to be reimagined for pedestrian safety.

Timeline

Larry Block, a West Hollywood City Council candidate and area resident, asked what the projected timeline from approval to completion would be. Truman said the team is working to complete its response to City planning comments this summer and get the application to design review and the Planning Commission.

“We don’t want to wait until the planning approval,” Truman said. “We are proceeding at risk, which is, we are submitting our construction plans in the middle of the year. Building permits will probably take six to nine months, and then if all goes possible, we may be able to break ground next year sometime. At this size, probably two and a half years would be the appropriate construction timeline.”

Entitlements in West Hollywood typically run two to three years, with extensions available, Truman said. No Planning Commission hearing date has been set. Residents who want to stay informed can reach the project team at melrosetriangle@gmail.com or at melrose-triangle.com.

The Money

West Hollywood City Council candidate Larry Block asked via chat whether financing was in place to complete the project and whether any contingency had an expiration date. The moderator directed the question to Oliver Gabay, VP of Development at the Charles Company, the West Hollywood-based development firm behind the project.

“We’ve talked with a few options to fund this project, but nothing’s been put into place yet because we don’t have a finalized project as of now,” Gabay said. “We have already started our conversations with our brokers and all have seen the project and understand what’s coming. Just kind of waiting for a finalized plan to go through planning before we start putting pen to paper.”

Block followed up asking for the expected overall dollar amount of the loan. The moderator said that question couldn’t be answered.

Olmenchenko then asked whether this was the same company with a project underway at 9034 Sunset Boulevard and whether that project was also on an AB 130 fast track. Both answers were yes. He asked whether the Sunset project would compete for the same financing and move first, leaving Melrose waiting.

Truman said she couldn’t guarantee anything but that Melrose would likely move first. “The applicant and the applicant’s team recognize the importance of doing something on Melrose Triangle,” she said. “Given that there is a large excavation on this site, given the desire to get something built on this site rather than keep filling a hole that we’re just gonna have to excavate again, my guess is, and it’s a fairly educated guess, is that Melrose Triangle will come before the one on Sunset.”