Developers have faith in church site on Hollywood Boulevard

Two of the country's largest developers plan to build a $150-million high-rise apartment complex at Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue in Hollywood.

Reinforcing the area's residential building boom, the project called Hollywood Horizon would be built on a corner that has had a church since 1959. The intersection on the western edge of Hollywood Boulevard's commercial district is near some of L.A.'s top attractions, including the famed TCL Chinese Theatre.

"This is a very important property in the sense that it is the gateway to Hollywood," said William McMorrow, chief executive of Beverly Hills real estate investment firm Kennedy Wilson, one of the two developers of the apartment complex.

Indeed, a shiny public sculpture called Hollywood La Brea Gateway stands on the southeast side of the intersection. The stainless-steel gazebo popular with picture-taking tourists is held up by statues representing actresses Dorothy Dandridge, Mae West, Anna May Wong and Dolores del Rio.

Its less glamorous neighbors across the street, however, include liquor stores, a massage parlor and a pawn shop, remnants of Hollywood's rougher-edged past. Some recent real estate projects failed, but there are signs of a turnaround.

Just south of the intersection on La Brea is a $120-million apartment complex called the Avenue, which was reborn in 2011 as a rental property after the original developer went bankrupt trying to build condominiums on the site.

To the east, at 7060 Hollywood Blvd., is a once-shabby 1970s office building that Kennedy Wilson and its developer partner LeFrak Organization gutted and renovated in 2008 after a previous owner unsuccessfully tried to convert it to condos. Today the tower houses offices of concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment Inc.

Now LeFrak and Kennedy Wilson are turning their sights on the northwest corner of Hollywood and La Brea, where they plan to build Horizon Hollywood, a trio of apartment towers with shops and restaurants.

"This is a community going through a major rejuvenation," said Richard LeFrak, chief executive of the LeFrak Organization, a prominent New York real estate firm.

Since 2003, there have been 3,326 residential units completed in Hollywood, and 1,145 more are under construction, according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. An additional 3,675 residences not including Hollywood Horizon are in planning stages.

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Developers have faith in church site on Hollywood Boulevard