Faring Proposes Office, Retail Project On Sunset Strip Car Dealership Site

Faring has presented plans to the city of West Hollywood for a five-story office and retail building to replace an empty two-story car dealership at 9100-9176 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. 

The project would contain two restaurant and retail spaces, an office lobby and outdoor dining at street level, according to Los Angeles YIMBY. The second through fifth floors would hold offices. The proposed building would span about 53K SF. The building would also feature two large digital billboards along the Sunset Boulevard frontage. The sign portion is being reviewed under West Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard off-site signage policy and would require a zoning map amendment.

Much of what has opened on the Sunset Strip in recent years has been hotel or condo uses. The majority of what’s being proposed is housing, often with ground-floor commercial space, like the Charles Co.’s 25-story residential tower, or hotel. The project in the works to replace the Viper Room combines both residential and hotel as well as commercial space. New office space is not the norm.

Faring is the developer on the project, but the property owner and applicant is LDRL CA 306 LLC, an LLC connected to Illinois-based consumer goods company DRL Enterprises. 

Though the project has long been in the works, the West Hollywood Planning Commission held a public hearing for the project earlier this month. Residents of neighboring homes and condo buildings showed up to voice concerns over the billboards, which would be animated as opposed to static images. The movement of the light would create flashing that would be a nuisance, many neighbors said. The developer of the project previously agreed to darken the billboards from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. every day.

The planning commission voted to continue the project but did not set a future date.

Sunset Boulevard was famous in the 1960s for the static billboards that lined the street in West Hollywood. But a more recent pivot to digital signage has faced pushback from residents. Faring is developing another project on Robertson Row that has a 98-foot-tall, three-sided billboard with two moving digital faces, according to the Beverly Press.

A 90-foot-tall billboard near the old Tower Records building at 8800 Sunset Blvd. is also contested. A proposed 84-foot-tall, two-sided billboard over an existing low-rise building at 9121 Sunset Blvd. is planned.