The once low-key strip of storefronts at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Micheltorena Street has in recent years attracted some upscale tenants, including Lark Bakery, The Hive Salon and Stark waxing studio. Now, the one-story building across from the Micheltorena Elementary playground is preparing for new and expanding businesses.
The former dry cleaner at the corner has been replaced with the new studio – and future store – for handbag designer Clare Vivier, who already shares a storefront around the corner with jewelry designer Kathryn Bentley. Meanwhile, the narrow storefront next door is being converted into what neighbors say will be restaurant. The restaurant owners could not be reached but apparently they plan to feature grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu.
[Read More…]
Earlier this year Andy Hasroun leased the storefront next to his Atwater Village wine shop with plans to transform the former H&R Block office into the Atwater Tap House, a gastropub serving craft beers and sausages. Hasroun envisioned that his new customers would be sipping beers and munching on sausages in time for the holiday season. Instead, the space next to his 55 Degrees wine and beer shop remains unfinished as Hasroun estimates the delay is costing him $10,000 a month in rent and lost business. What’s the hold up? Hasroun was counting on a new city parking credit program to provide him the necessary parking. That parking credit program, however, has been tied up in the City Attorney’s Office despite the fact that it was approved by the City Council in February. Without those credits, the beer can’t flow the Atwater Tap House.
The parking credits were “the reason I planned to open a business in this area,” said Hasroun. “I should have been open in November if everything went smoothly. This is disgusting.”
[Read More…]
The Sunset Boulevard building that housed the former La Parrilla Mexican restaurant in Silver Lake has been purchased by nightclub owner Steve Edelson. The purchase leaves Edelson, who also operates El Cid and Los Globos, with potentially three Sunset Boulevard clubs and restaurants within a mile of each other. An associate of Edelson confirmed that his group has purchased the building at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Westerly Terrace.
The two-story, triangular shaped building, which had been listed for sale earlier this year for $1.4 million, is located within a block of Los Globos, which Edelson purchased earlier this year. La Parrilla closed late last month after about 20 years in operation.
The Eastsider is seeking more details about what plans Edelson has for the building, which includes 10 apartments on the second floor in addition to the restaurant.
Photo courtesy Arts Refoundry
The Arts Refoundry of Lincoln Heights has come up with a new DIY holiday present: bronze belt buckles. The foundry, started up by Cypress Park resident and artist Gorden Bowen, will be offering three “Make Your Own Buckle” workshops in November and December that will show participants how to design and sculpt buckles out of wax, which are then cast into bronze at the foundry. “Workshops also include an actual pour and foundry demo of the lost wax process that takes your buckle from wax to bronze,” according to an Arts Refoundry press release.
The workshops, which cost $150, includes all the tools and materials needed to make the buckle. The Arts Refoundry also sells Metalcast Kits that allow buyers to design and sculpt their own buckles at home before they are poured into shape.
The glass doors of the Echo Park Save A Lot have been shut tight since March when the discount market unexpectedly closed, leaving behind a store still stocked with unsold merchandise and abandoned equipment. On November 1, however, those doors will reopen when all the remaining items in the store – from unsold boxes of salsa and diapers to meat display cases and cash registers – will be put up for sale at auction “by order of landlord,” according to Van Horn Auctions. There was no mention of the Save A Lot van, used to transport customers, that was a common sight in the store’s Sunset Boulevard parking lot.
A spokesman for Fresh & Easy, the expanding grocery chain that was interested in the Echo Park market, said he had no updates to offer.
The Echo Park Save-A-Lot, located next to a Walgreens, operated in part of the building that was once home to Pioneer Market, which closed in 2004 after more than 60 years in business.
Photo from NAI Capital
The cages and carpeted cat trees have been hauled away, and the faded images of a rabbit, fish and rooster on the facade have disappeared under a coat of beige paint. Nine months after Highland Park pet shop owner Hervey Chapman died, his York Boulevard building has been cleaned out and was recently put up for sale at $565,000. It did not take long for offers to start coming in as investors and entrepreneurs try to stake a claim to the changing street, where new restaurants, shops and art spaces reflect the ongoing gentrification of Highland Park. “We have gotten very heavy interest in the property,” said property agent Marie Taylor at NAI Capital.
In fact, only three weeks after the building went on the market, a few offers have already been submitted for the approximately 3,000-square-foot building, which is located next to the popular York gastropub. Taylor said she expects a sale to be completed within 45 days. What will become of the old pet shop?
[Read More…]
Proposed shopping center at Temple and Bonnie Brae streets/NAI Capital.
Photo by Kyle L./Flickr
It looked the L.A. Derby Dolls, the women’s roller skating team, would have to look for a new home in late 2008 after the owners of its Historic Filipinotown headquarters and track won city approval to build four apartment towers rising as high as nine floors above Temple Street. But that residential project went no where as the economy tanked and financing came harder to come by. Now, the property owners are trying a different track: retail. The most recent proposal calls for transforming the 50,000-square-foot building now called The Doll Factory (it houses the Derby Doll’s track and offices) into a neighborhood shopping center with more than 1oo parking spaces. “What I would like to see there is a grocery store,” said leasing agent Mark Ranftle with NAI Capital.
[Read More…]
The recent closing of La Popular, the Echo Park furniture store that opened during the 1940s as Stone Bros., has left behind a big empty space on the south side of Sunset Boulevard near Alvarado Street. But now the nearly 5,600-square-feet of ground floor space – in addition to a mezzanine – has come up for rent. The listing promotes it as an “idea retail – showroom opportunity,” but listing agent Sevada Hemelians said it could possibly be turned into another large restaurant, such as Mohawk Bend across the street. “This is a prime intersection in Echo Park” and many other nearby properties are being remade for different uses, Hemelians said.
[Read More…]
The owner of 55 Degree Wine in Atwater Village plans to open an 80-seat gastropub next to his wine shop in a Glendale Boulevard minimall. But, first, Andy Hasroun must get a special permit from the city to open up that restaurant in a former H&R Block office at 3111 Glendale Boulevard – the same shopping center that includes a Starbucks. The Planning Department had scheduled a hearing this morning to consider the permit. Atwater Village Now explains what Hasroun, who is also opening a wine bar in San Marino, has planned for his Atwater restaurant:
They will have a couple of dozen beers from around the world on tap, starting at $6 and going up to $15 for the high-end, rare/limited beers. Also on the beer list – Tony Yanow’s latest brews from his Atwater Village brewery, Golden Road Brewing.
From the kitchen, a variety of sausages including vegan sausages (Andy wants to make sure there are plenty of options for his patrons) and lots of toppings (think Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank). Andy wants to make sure the whole menu from beer to food is affordable for all his future patrons, and is really excited to get things started.
Hasroun said he will keep 55 Degree Wine as a separate business that might serve food from the restaurant next door.
Boyle Heights
Update: Banks and bakeries express interest in Boyle Hotel storefronts
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
L.A. Web Awards 
Best of L.A. 
The Eastsider publishes stories and news from the northeast corner of the City of Los Angeles and neighboring East Los Angeles. Who is the Eastsider? Where does the Eastsider roam? 