Millennium Scraps $1B Plan to Build Hollywood Towers

Millennium Partners has ended its project to build residential and office towers on two parking lots next to the landmark Capitol Records Building in Hollywood.

The New York-based developer has submitted a letter to the Department of City Planning in Los Angeles formally withdrawing all entitlement requests relating to the development, known as Hollywood Center.

The planning department has terminated all of the entitlement requests, effectively killing the project, which has been in the works for more than a decade, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The plans for the 1.3M SF Hollywood Center, proposed in 2012, envisioned a 35-story tower and a 45-story tower on opposite sides of Vine Street, just north of the world-famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine.

The towers, which would have been the tallest in Hollywood, would have included more than 1,005 residential units, with the high-rises flanked by two 11-story buildings.

Millennium bought the parcels surrounding the iconic Capitol Records Building in 2006 for an undisclosed price.

What was originally known as the Millennium Project was stymied when the California Geological Survey discovered what it said in 2014 was an active earthquake fault line directly under the site. Consultants hired by Millennium Partners disputed this finding.

In 2019, a California appeals court ruled that an environmental impact analysis of the project was “fatally defective” because it was too ambiguous. The analysis had been approved by the Los Angeles City Council in 2013.

A statement issued by Philip Aarons, founding partner of Millennium Partners, referenced the company’s work to upgrade the Capitol Records Building—making it earthquake-proof—but did not indicate any future plans for the parking areas.

“Sixteen years ago, we spearheaded the effort to save the world-renowned Capitol Records Building by getting this iconic structure declared a City of Los Angeles historic-cultural monument so that future generations could continue to appreciate its timeless beauty,” Aarons said. “Over the last several years we have worked to preserve this architectural treasure by completing a full seismic upgrade of the structure so that the building can return to its critical role within the music industry.”

“While we have made the decision for now not to move ahead with our vision to build housing on the surrounding surface parking lots, we remain committed to working to make the Hollywood community a better place to live and work and to help Hollywood realize its full potential as the entertainment capital of not just Los Angeles, but the world,” Aarons said.

Millennium is moving ahead with a project approved in 2022 to build a 15-story office tower at 6450 Sunset Boulevard, the report said.