Hollywood, Reborn and Transformed

"New and converted condo are plentiful, and there is a bona fide office shortage -- vacancies are less than 5 percent. The momentum may be enough to carry Glamtown through to the next cycle of good times.

For decades after the 1960s, Hollywood took its cue from Grade B exploitation flicks, and sank into a creepy oblivion. Once a middle-class bastion, by the early 1980s Hollywood was known for crime, drugs, runaway teens, and trolling hookers. But like so many infill districts in LA, Hollywood roared back in the late 1990s, as commuters sought to cut drivetimes and homebuyers sought to cut down the monthly nut. Even the upper middle class headed eastward from the shore, into such formerly bohemian or dclass districts as Fairfax, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Elysian\ Valley, Los Feliz -- and, of course, Hollywood... Yet another mammoth project is known as Blvd. 6200, a $400 million mixed-use development by New York's Clarett Group. The 7.2-acre site will feature 175,000 square feet of ground floor retail" and over 1,000 residential units.