A seven-story building with 115 apartments is rising from the corner lot at 8025 Santa Monica Boulevard, where a Mid-Century Modern Bank of America branch once stood before closing in 2021. Developer Massachi is behind the project, which sits at the busy intersection of Santa Monica and Crescent Heights boulevards in West Hollywood and will include ground-floor commercial space alongside the housing.
According to Urbanize LA, the project includes a mix of studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units, 16 of which will be set aside as affordable housing. The building will also feature 3,909 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, a 115-car parking garage, a pool deck, rooftop terrace decks, and an interior courtyard. Massachi, led by founder Alex Massachi, acquired the site for $13.6 million in June 2022, according to Traded.
Financing and the Site's Circular History
Bank of America itself financed part of the project's next chapter, providing a $48 million construction loan in May 2026 for a site where it had previously operated a retail branch, per Traded's reporting on the deal. The 4,120-square-foot bank building that once occupied the lot was built in 1960 and sat vacant for roughly two years after its closure, according to WEHO Times.
Before demolition could proceed, the city required a Historical Resources Assessment, since West Hollywood evaluates structures over 45 years old for potential historic significance. That 2023 assessment determined the bank structure did not qualify for historic cultural resource status, clearing the way for its removal, the article notes.
Approvals, Design, and Micro-Units
The West Hollywood Planning Commission formally approved the project on September 7, 2023, granting it a California Environmental Quality Act Class 32 in-fill exemption meant to streamline urban housing development, as reported by Beverly Press. City entitlements followed, with OfficeUntitled providing the entitlement design for the project, though Massachi has said OfficeUntitled is not the architect of record, per Urbanize LA.
The development also brings a housing format new to West Hollywood: studio apartments averaging 338 square feet and one-bedroom units averaging 440 square feet, according to The Real Deal. The micro-unit approach is designed to offer lower entry price points in a notoriously expensive rental market.
Building Method and Construction Team
General contractor Westside Contractors Inc. is building the project, with Kurt Fischer Structural Engineering serving as structural engineer, Urbanize LA reports. Per engineering specifications from Kurt Fischer Structural Engineering, the seven-story building consists of five levels of Type IIIA wood-frame residential construction stacked over a two-level concrete podium with one subterranean parking level, a common method for combining lightweight housing with below-grade parking in dense urban corridors.
Part of a Bigger State-Mandated Push
The project lands within a larger regulatory backdrop: under California's 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment for 2021 through 2029, West Hollywood is mandated by state regulators to plan for 3,933 new housing units across all income tiers. City officials have separately moved to speed up housing approvals to meet those state deadlines, a shift Hoodline detailed in its report on housing review authority shifting to staff.
Massachi has been expanding its footprint nearby, having acquired a development site at 7979 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood for $9.35 million in March 2023 to propose a 41-unit mixed-use building, according to Traded. The company has also proposed a project next to the Laugh Factory on Sunset Boulevard and previously developed a 24-unit building north of Santa Monica Boulevard's intersection with Orange Drive, per Urbanize LA.
The 8025 Santa Monica Boulevard project adds to a wave of new housing recently rising along the corridor, including the 89-unit affordable project Hoodline covered in its story on the Sunset Strip side street affordable project, also designed by OfficeUntitled, as well as continued apartment investment activity that Hoodline reported on along Santa Monica Boulevard involving CIM Group.
