A Beverly Hills-based developer wants to move ahead with plans for a 100-unit mixed-use apartment complex on a Westlake corner.
A filing with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning requested permission to demolish three aging buildings at 1701-1717 West Sixth Street to make way for a six-story apartment and retail building, according to Urbanize.
A permit filed with the L.A. Department of Building and Safety describes a six-story building with 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and two levels of underground parking.
Developer Elias Shokrian first filed for a 100-unit apartment building in late 2018 through Benbaroukh, the same Beverly Hills-based entity that filed the demolition request. He’s owned the property since 1997.
Shokrian also controls another limited liability company, Calitex, which shares Benbaroukh’s Beverly Hills address.
Shokrian came under fire last year for leaving a Calitex-owned Glendale senior apartment building without a functioning elevator for at least six months, stranding some seniors in their apartments. Last October a judge ordered Shokrian to fix one of the elevators by early this year, according to the Glendale News-Press.
He’s also been linked to a scandal involving former L.A. County Assessor John Noguez. His brother, Amir Shokrian, was accused of negotiating a pair of deals with an associate of Noguez’s to lower assessed values on property that Amir Shokrian owned. Elias Shokrian and another relative contributed $1,000 to Noguez’s campaign for assessor. [Urbanize] — Dennis Lynch