The Melrose Triangle mixed-use development project, featuring 80 residential units, home office spaces, a two-level cafe and retail shops, was expected to transform a highly visible intersection in West Hollywood.
Instead, with construction suspended, the site has become a large, swampy pond that neighbors have nicknamed “Lake WeHo” because of the accumulation of green-hued water, presumably colored by algae.
Over the past few months, water has flooded the construction site at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue, providing a home to a new kind of tenant: mosquitoes, ducks and other water-loving creatures, residents say.
It is unclear when construction might begin to drain the mini lake and complete the development.
Jack Kurchian, a project manager for the developer Charles Co., told The Times that water began to pool after many of the 34 groundwater pumps installed on the property were vandalized. The pumps have since been repaired and the water level has been reduced, but the company is acquiring additional pumps to remove the remaining water.
“It’s been going backwards. We’ve probably already pumped it two or three feet with the pumps that are there,” Kurchian said. “It’s just not happening fast enough.”
West Hollywood city officials said the development is situated on a high water table where soils are more saturated. The city’s code enforcement team gave the property owner a violation notice on June 24 and is working with the owner to ensure the water is drained, according to a city news release.
The city said inspectors from the Western Los Angeles County Vector Control District visited the construction site to monitor mosquito activity in the water, but the agency could not be reached for further comment Friday. Kurchian said representatives told him they found no active mosquitoes.
A video recently taken at the site shows a pair of ducks swimming in the murky water.
The development has been in the works for at least a decade but has encountered hurdles, including a lawsuit that questioned the adequacy of the city's environmental review of the project.
Local advocacy groups, including the Los Angeles Conservancy, had called on developers to preserve the site’s former building, which housed the Jones Dog & Cat Hospital, as part of the project. They cited its significance as one of the city’s few examples of streamlined modernist commercial architecture. The building was demolished in 2018.
It is unclear when construction is expected to begin on Melrose Triangle.
