Developer Plans to Demolish The Lot, Rebuild Studio Buildings

Whether you're in the entertainment industry or you've used the back entrance to the West Hollywood Gateway shopping center, it's hard to miss the historic studio known as The Lot on Santa Monica Boulevard.

The L.A. Times reports the property's owner, CIM Group, plans to raze its office buildings and sound-dubbing stages, which will be replaced with glass-and-steel structures.

A West Hollywood senior planner told the Times that CIM group intends to begin demolition in a few weeks and construction will occur in six phases.

The redevelopment plans have upset some in the entertainment industry.

The space has a strong connection with old Hollywood. Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable and Marlon Brando are some of the names mentioned in the article.

Currently some of the soundstages are used for the production of HBO's True Blood.

It seems that not much can be done to stop the project. "The problem is it's an approved development," said Adrian Scott Fine, the Los Angeles Conservancy's director of advocacy. "The West Hollywood City Council essentially has already approved the project."

Further complicating things, the West Hollywood-Los Angeles city boundary slices through several buildings on the south edge of the studio lot.

Read more on the L.A. Times.