GPI Companies founders Cliff Goldstein and Drew Planting
Music fans have known this was coming, but now it’s official.
The music store and Hollywood institution Amoeba Records will be demolished. The Los Angeles City Council approved GPI Companies’ plan to replace the record store at 6400 Sunset Boulevard with a 26-story podium-style residential tower, according to Curbed.
The Council also denied an appeal to include more affordable housing from the Coalition to Preserve L.A., an advocacy group that frequently battles market-rate housing developments.
GPI hasn’t set a date for the demolition. The Brentwood developer filed its redevelopment plans in August 2017 and at the time predicted work would start this summer. Amoeba’s lease, however, runs out sometime next year.
GPI Companies is cleared to build 200 units, 10 of which will be reserved for “extremely low income” renters, along with 7,000 square feet of retail space and 277 parking spaces in a podium. The City Council’s approval was all but assured once the City Planning Commission approved the development plan in March.
Amoeba’s Sunset Boulevard location opened in 2001. Both the L.A. and original San Francisco Amoeba stores are large for independent record stores.
Amoeba ownership has plans to open another store in Hollywood and as of last summer also wanted to sell recreational marijuana at its new location.
The city designated the GPI development a Sustainable Communities Project — much to the ire of the Coalition to Preserve L.A. — allowing the project to bypass the state environmental clearance process, expediting the review. [Curbed] — Dennis Lynch