HPP settles lawsuit with AIDS foundation over Hollywood office tower

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has settled its lawsuit against Hudson Pacific Properties over a Hollywood office development.

The nonprofit group behind the failed Measure S campaign agreed to drop the suit after the development firm, headed by CEO Victor Coleman, promised to reduce the size of its 15-story project to 13 stories.

The development at 5901 Sunset Boulevard, dubbed Epic, received approval from City Council last August but immediately drew backlash from the foundation and concerned residents, the Los Angeles Times reported.

As part of the agreement, Hudson Pacific also dropped plans to put a supermarket on the ground floor, tweaked the designs of the building to mitigate potential noise and scaled back the total square footage by 20 percent.

The Healthcare Foundation, led by President Michael Weinstein, is still fighting a lawsuit against Miami developer Crescent Heights over the Palladium Residences, a pair of residential towers slated to rise near the foundation’s headquarters.

The Foundation, which serves thousands afflicted with HIV, has become an enormously active participant in the city’s evolving planning process, often taking an anti-development position. Its ill-fated initiative Measure S — which sources said stemmed from of its lawsuit over Palladium Residences — would have suspended any project seeking a land use change for two years.

As of May, Hudson Pacific said it planned to break ground on Epic next year. It tapped CBRE to lease the project, TRD reported. [LAT] — Cathaleen Chen