The current Viper Room will be leveled, and a new Viper Room will be included in the 8850 Sunset Blvd. development. (photo by Rance Collins)

After more than four hours of public input and deliberation, the West Hollywood City Council approved the controversial 8850 Sunset Blvd. project in a 3-2 vote on Aug. 26. The development will replace the block of one-and-two story storefronts, which includes the famed Viper Room, with a mixed-used hotel, residential units, restaurant and retail space.

“We have a development team that is game to help beautify what is frankly dilapidated buildings and a rundown historic music venue and bring it back to life,” Mayor John Erickson said.

“This area of Sunset has long been ready for improvements and the approved project will energize this area for decades to come,” Vice Mayor Chelsea Byers said. “New affordable housing units and opportunities for the entire community to benefit are ample and there are enough flexible spaces in the design to meet ongoing market demands. As a neighbor to the area, I am excited to see the way the Sunset Strip continues to evolve with the times and dream up new ways to excite our imaginations and support our city.”

The project has been in the planning stages for years, and various versions with differing sizes and scales had been proposed in the past. The version greenlit is 11-stories. With 78 residential units, 20% – 16 units – earmarked as affordable housing.

“The developer’s offer of 16 units or 20% designated ‘affordable,’ as if that’s an extraordinary public benefit when the state is demanding that 60% of new units built be ‘affordable,’ is not such a great deal for the city,” Councilwoman Lauren Meister said. “The city’s own inclusionary housing ordinance required 20% affordable units in new projects. Had the developer offered even 30 or 40% affordable, that at least would have been more than what we’re typically getting anyway [without a development agreement]. But 20%? Nothing special.”

Councilman John Heilman agreed with Meister, and added that the developers “didn’t have actual hotel operators ready to occupy the hotel portion of the project.” He noted that occupants could make “major changes to the building’s layout.”

“I’m afraid developers will simply turn around and sell the project to someone else who will need to make changes,” Heilman said. “I don’t think the project is really feasible from a financial standpoint. I’m afraid we’ve spent a lot of time and energy and we will end up with another approved proposal which won’t be built. The community deserves better.”

Silver Creek Development, the company behind the project, provided renderings and a 3D simulation of what the completed structure will look like, which were previewed during the meeting.

Many residents near the Sunset Strip have long rallied against the project, arguing that the size and scope will cause noise and traffic congestion.

“Yes, the developer has been meeting with the neighbors since 2018, but the biggest issues we’ve been asking them to do, they haven’t done,” WeHo Heights Neighborhood Association chair Elyse Eisenberg said. “We’ve been concerned about the density – there’s simply too much going on for this site. We’ve been concerned about the traffic circulation and parking … The current plan is unmanageable and just not realistic. The city staff has spent more time analyzing the billboard revenue than it has actually the impact of what this project is going to mean for the neighborhood.”

Eisenberg added she has advocated for the project to become entirely residential units, along with the Viper Room, restaurant and retail spaces, “if the city really cared about affordable housing.”

Others pointed to the historical value of the property.

“It is a historic site in the hearts of every true Los Angeleno,” resident Brenda Campos said. “The design and scale of the project will turn the Hollywood landmark into a tower that loses all its old entertainment charm. We don’t need this eyesore in our neighborhood, and not to mention the parking is going to be a mess.”

“These spaces cannot be replicated,” resident Caroline Nagy said. “Because when you walk into the Viper Room, you enter a lived space – a creative music [center] with storied history. This project’s investors claim they are preserving the authenticity of Viper in this new commercial development by simply repurposing the name and the green neon.”

Members of United Here 11, a hotel workers union, spoke in favor of the project at the meeting.

“I want to share my hopes in believing that I will be able to live in a complex like this, and not only work in the area but live and be an integral part of this community,” said Mavis Rodriguez, who works as a housekeeper at 1 Hotel on the Sunset Strip. “Normally, projects like these are associated with people of very grand wealth, and someone like me and other housekeepers who may have a good wage would still have to pay more than half of my wages to live here. So these projects are crucial to people like me to help mitigate our housing crisis. And allow people like me to have a better quality of life and the opportunity to work near our jobs and give us more time with our families.”

Tommy Black, general manager of the Viper Room, also spoke in favor, citing the benefits of a new, upgraded space for the historic club.

“For many reasons, I fully support the mixed-use project at 8850 Sunset. In regards to the Viper Room specifically, 8850 presents an exciting and important opportunity for my staff, our patrons and our neighbors,” Black said. “The reimagined Viper Room is a chance for us to attract a wider range of talent, accommodate a larger audience, modernize our space, showcase rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia as an additional attraction and of course generate more revenue for this city. Being in the same complex as a hotel and restaurant will certainly attract more people to the Viper. These changes will add to the neighborhood’s vibrancy and activate this section of the Sunset Strip. I know there are people opposing this project because they don’t want to lose the Viper Room, but I believe a new life could be given to the Viper Room through the proposed 8850 project.”

Several years ago, Silver Creek Development purchased the Viper Room.

Ultimately, the council determined that the benefits would outweigh the drawbacks.

“This project is going to take years to be built, and when it’s built, I think people are going to realize that we have a better building there than, frankly, an eyesore on the historic Sunset Boulevard,” Erickson said.

No precise timeline on construction has yet been determined.

Numerous community members spoke at the public hearing on Aug. 26 for the controversial 8850 Sunset Blvd. project. (photo by Jon Viscott)