CIM Group one step closer to reopening Sunset Gordon Tower

A long struggle over CIM Group’s Sunset Gordon Tower in Hollywood is finally moving towards a resolution.

The 299-unit tower was vacated in 2015 and has sat empty since, following a lawsuit by a local neighborhood group over a historic restaurant that CIM demolished to build it. The Los Angeles City Planning Commission has voted to re-approve plans to open the tower, according to Curbed.

The approval comes with the condition that CIM set aside 15 of the units in the 22-story tower at 5929 West Sunset Boulevard as affordable to “very low income” renters, as defined by city guidelines. Planning Commissioner Renee Dake Wilson emphasized the need to supply housing in a market starving for more units.

“The applicant was a bad actor, and this is correcting that,” she said. “Out of that process, we’re getting some affordable housing… as well as a park, and housing, housing, housing.”

The tower’s 40 residents were vacated in 2015 after a judge retroactively revoked its construction permits during a lawsuit brought by the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association and prominent attorney Robert Silverstein, who’s known to take up so-called Not In My Backyard, or NIMBY, causes.

The suit alleged that CIM wrongfully demolished the 1920s era Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant building, which it promised to preserve. CIM later admitted that it rebuilt a replica of the restaurant that incorporated some elements of the original structure.

The decision forced CIM to go through the lengthy environmental review process again. CIM filed its draft environmental impact report a year ago.

Last year the firm also announced it would build a 63-unit apartment building across the street at 6007 Sunset Boulevard. [Curbed] — Dennis Lynch