One of Hollywood‘s most recognizable intersections is about to look very different. The Los Angeles City Planning Commission has given its approval to a ambitious mixed-use development at 6800 Sunset Boulevard, where the southwest corner of Sunset and Highland Avenue currently hosts a collection of low-rise commercial buildings. Developer Galaxy Commercial Holdings wants to tear those down and replace them with something considerably more dramatic.
The approved plans call for a two-building complex anchored by a 42-story glass-and-steel tower stretching 504 feet into the Hollywood sky. That centerpiece building would house 304 apartments spanning studio through three-bedroom layouts, 115 hotel rooms, and roughly 23,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and commercial space running along both Sunset and Highland. A second, more modest building would rise to the south along Leland Way, dedicated entirely to 80 units of affordable housing reserved for very low-income seniors. Combined, the two buildings would be supported by parking for around 500 vehicles.
The affordable housing component wasn’t just a goodwill gesture — it was the mechanism that unlocked the whole project. In exchange for including those below-market units, the City Planning Commission granted density bonus incentives that allowed Galaxy Commercial Holdings to build at a scale that wouldn’t have been permitted under standard zoning rules. Architecture firm Gensler is handling the design, with OJB brought in as landscape architect. Renderings suggest a contemporary tower that steps down in height as it moves south, a deliberate nod to the lower-scaled buildings along that stretch of Highland. Terraced rooflines with landscaped amenity decks add another layer of visual interest to the overall scheme.
The development doesn’t exist in isolation. Just to the east, the already-approved Crossroads Hollywood project is moving forward with its own mix of housing, hotel rooms, and commercial space in buildings reaching up to 32 stories. Meanwhile, another nearby proposal — the CMNTY Culture Campus at Sunset and Highland — has become the subject of a very public legal dispute, with DJ Calvin Harris claiming he lost $25 million tied to delays in that development.
As for Galaxy Commercial Holdings, the company has navigated Los Angeles development before, with previous involvement in projects including the Vue residential tower in Downtown San Pedro and a mixed-use apartment project at 511 Harbor Boulevard, the latter of which was ultimately completed by Trammell Crow Company.
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