Silver Creek Development has received the green light to transform West Hollywood’s famous Viper Room nightclub into an 11-story hotel and apartment tower.
The Scottsdale, Arizona-based developer, led by Franck Ruimy, received approval from the West Hollywood City Council to build the tower on a block-long lot at 8850 Sunset Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The historic Viper Room is slated for demolition.
Plans for the sculptural tower include a redesigned Viper Room, 78 apartments and a 90-room five-star hotel with conference rooms. Of the apartments, 164 will be reserved as affordable.
The 125-foot-tall tower will house 28,000 square feet of restaurants, cafes and bars, as well as a 6,750-square-foot replacement lounge for the Viper Room. A parking garage will accommodate 232 cars.
The plans represent Silver Creek’s third vision for a redevelopment of the legendary nightclub on the south side of the Sunset Strip between Larrabee Street and San Vicente Boulevard.
The project, designed by Miami-based firm Arquitectonica, was revised in May last year and now includes twice the number of apartments than originally planned. The architect abandoned the boxy design in favor of undulating balconies and cascading terrace decks on the upper floors.
The new high-rise will feature a glass-heavy facade, balconies, LED panels and drought-resistant landscaping, while creating a public plaza along the street and a central passageway leading through the building to a park-like setting on Sunset Boulevard.
The new Viper Room on the ground floor will feature a tall glass entrance, a larger concert stage and auditorium, a memorabilia room and a recording studio.
A timetable for development has not been announced, although construction is expected to take three years.
The original plan called for a controversial 200-foot-tall building designed by Morphosis that featured a white claw rising sideways and then cantilevered over a traditional 15-story tower with 115 hotel rooms and 41 condominiums.
Silver Creek Development, which has an office in Brentwood, is a subsidiary of Scottsdale-based REM Finance. In 2018, REM Finance purchased the Viper Room and three other properties on Sunset Boulevard for $80 million.
In August 2022, Silver Creek secured a $62 million loan to finance the renovation of the Viper Room.
The Viper Room, the rock club once partly owned by Johnny Depp, began as a jazz club called the Melody Room, rumored to have been frequented by gangsters Bugsy Malone and Mickey Cohen. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was known as the Central.
A year after the Viper Room reopened in 1993, actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose. The club soon became a hangout for young Hollywood stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, who came to see artists like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Johnny Cash and Courtney Love. Depp sold his shares in the club in 2004.
8850 Sunset follows a number of similar hotel-condominium projects on the Sunset Strip, including the Edition Hotel & Residences and the Pendry Hotel & Residences, as well as new projects in the works at 8240 and 9034 Sunset Boulevard, according to Urbanize.
— Dana Bartholomew
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