Schwabs, Housing Lead Hollywood Comeback

HOLLYWOOD, CA-The famed Schwabs drug store name will reappear as part of the Sunset & Vine street scene and “mixed use” will be the theme for Hollywood’s continuing retail and housing redevelopment, according to speakers Wednesday at the 10th annual Hollywood Economic Development Summit.

Presented by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the summit, with presentations from developers and city officials, featured updates on some of the high-profile projects either under way or planned in Hollywood, as well as the unveiling of a new Internet site(hollywoodeconomicmap.net) that provides up-to-date information about developments in the entertainment capital.

The Schwabs name will grace a 21,000-sf retail venue called the Shops At Schwabs, according to Larry Bond of Santa Monica-based Bond Cos., one of the developers of the $125-million, 620,000-sf mixed-use project at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street. Bond told the audience at the economic summit that the Shops At Schwabs will include a lunch counter designed to recreate the look of the original Schwabs, a storied drug store that stood on Sunset Boulevard for decades and is known in Hollywood lore as the place where 1940s and 1950s movie star Lana Turner reputedly was discovered.

Schwabs, which played a role in the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard, was also known as a hangout for Hollywood celebrities and aspiring stars. It remained a tourist attraction until it closed in 1983.

Bond acquired the rights to the Schwab name from heirs of the family, one of whom he had to track down in a small town in Washington state in order to get permission to use the name. In addition to the storied soda counter, Schwab’s will include a boutique department store, hair salon, sushi bar and restaurant, flower shop and cafe and teahouse.

Bond’s Sunset & Vine project is one of a number of developments designed with mixed uses, which was a recurrent theme at yesterday’s summit. Among the projects highlighted was Views At 270, a joint venture between Hollywood Community Housing Corp. and Village Properties of Los Angeles.

Bill Harris, executive director of Hollywood Community Housing, described Views At 270–which will occupy a site at Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue–as the only mixed-use project to his knowledge in the state that incorporates housing with a large national retailer. The plan puts a Walgreens drug store on the same site as 56 units of affordable apartments. The project is scheduled to break ground at the end of the year and be completed in 2005.

The Sunset & Vine and Views At 270 are just two of dozens of projects under way in Hollywood, according to information distributed at the economic summit. Keynote speaker, Los Angeles Councilman Eric Garcetti, said Los Angeles needs to “grow up” in the sense of building higher density, urban projects rather than suburban-style developments. Other speakers provided insights into the opportunities, difficulties, new city ordinances and financial aspects of developing in Hollywood.