Artisan Ventures approved to build apartment highrise in Hollywood

Artisan Ventures has beat back an appeal trying to thwart its plans to build a 25-story apartment highrise in Hollywood.

The Santa Monica-based developer won support from the Los Angeles City Council, which approved the 260-unit tower at 6350 West Selma Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It will replace a parking lot.

The appeal by Sound Factory, a recording studio located across the street, contended noise from construction and operations would disrupt its business and noted errors in the project’s environmental review.

City staff recommended city leaders deny the appeal, saying vibrations expected from construction would be temporary, and similar to other developments built close by. The noise would also not be significant as defined by state environmental laws. 

The project, known as Artisan Hollywood, was introduced in 2019 and approved in September last year. Artisan Realty bought the 1.6-acre site in 2018 for $61 million.

Plans call for a rectangular tower with 260 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments above 6,800 square feet of shops and restaurants. A parking garage would serve an undisclosed number of cars.

Artisan would employ Transit Oriented Communities incentives to allow a larger building than permitted by zoning rules in exchange for 26 affordable apartments for extremely low-income households.

A project website said the developer, also doing business as Artisan Realty Advisors, had planned for 270 units and 27 affordable homes on the L-shaped lot. Six commercial buildings will be preserved. An earlier plan called for 290 apartments, 29 of them affordable.

The 286-foot-tall building, designed by San Francisco-based Gensler, would feature beige frames around banks of industrial-style windows that open, with exterior balconies on three sides, according to a rendering.

The brick, metal and glass tower will have a podium deck with pool, fitness center, business center and a rooftop lounge. 

Artisan Ventures, founded in 2016 by Mark Laderman and Collin Komae, invests in offices, homes, studio/soundstages and mixed-use properties in Southern California and throughout the West, according to its website.

The company has faced recent financial headwinds.

Last month, Artisan Ventures and New York-based Starwood Capital Group surrendered a 1.6 million-square-foot office complex at 100, 200 and 222 Pacific Coast Highway in El Segundo to lenders after falling behind on nearly $500 million in debt, according to The Real Deal.

In July, MetLife Investment Management foreclosed on an El Segundo office building owned by Starwood Capital and Artisan Ventures at 1960 East Grand Avenue, where the joint venture planned to build 94,000 square feet of offices and a new parking garage, according to The Real Deal. 

New Jersey-based MetLife  paid $72.8 million for the 257,000-square-foot building through a non-judicial foreclosure, which works out to $283 per square foot.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

• Starwood surrenders another El Segundo office complex to lenders
• Starwood, Artisan face foreclosure on El Segundo office building
• Starwood, Artisan default on $85M loan tied to El Segundo office

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