BH investor goes Hollywood in link with construction vet

Pair eyes 58-unit rental complex site sold by private music school

Kayte Edson, Principal, STS Development Services in front of 6766 W. Hawthorn Avenue (LinkedIn/KayteEdson, Google Maps, LoopNet)
Kayte Edson, Principal, STS Development Services in front of 6766 W. Hawthorn Avenue (LinkedIn/KayteEdson, Google Maps, LoopNet)

An investor that specializes in retail centers and creative offices has tapped a veteran of the residential development landscape to extend its reach with a project that would offer housing to employees of the service and creative industries in the heart of Hollywood.

The seven-story, 58-unit apartment development is being eyed for 6766 W. Hawthorn Avenue on land owned by Brickstar Capital. Plans were filed with the city this week by Kayte Edson, a principal of STS Construction, which is currently working on another project a few blocks away.

Edson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Beverly Hills-based Brickstar is “primarily focused on service-oriented retail centers and creative office,” according to its website, but “does not shy away from any asset type with its diverse portfolio of retail, hospitality, multi-family, office, industrial, and land in Southern California and Nevada.”

The multifamily project would go up a couple blocks from Hollywood Boulevard and Highland, the site of a retail and entertainment complex that takes its name from the intersection. The center is an anchor of the commercial landscape of the area, complemented by Walt Disney Co.’s El Capitan Theater and other draws for locals and tourists alike.

The developer is seeking density incentives under the City of L.A.’s Transit Oriented Communities program, which grants certain zoning exemptions for projects near public transit. The site is located near bus stops and the Hollywood/Highland metro station.

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The 6,300-square-foot site is currently a parking lot. Its neighbors include a Church of Scientology Information Center and a for-profit music school.

The school, Musicians Institute, sold the lot to Brickstar for $3.3 million in late 2019, according to public records. Brickstar bought the property through an LLC.

STS is currently working on an eight-story, 69-unit building that began last summer at 1621 North McCadden Place, just a few hundred feet away from the Hawthorne Avenue site. The “workforce housing” project will feature studio apartments that are an average of 375 square feet. The complex is expected to seek monthly rents of around $2,000, with some units set aside for extremely low-income tenants.

STS began in Seattle and now operates both there and around L.A.

Real estate analysts see Hollywood, which has long ranked among Los Angeles’s densest and most populous neighborhoods, as poised for continued residential and commercial development. Last month an investor also unveiled plans for The Star, a curved, 22-story office tower on Sunset Boulevard that would rank among the area’s flashiest new projects.

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