Looming Shadow Engulfs Gower Cultch

The Continuing Saga of Capitol Records

Mark Cassidy, president of Molasky Pacific, one of the Las Vegas-based developers of the proposed megatower at Columbia Square, continued schmoozing with various important-looking men, and his hired guns kept shaking hands. It was a night of reintroduction, after all, to remind a few dozen selected guests that the deep-pocketed folks behind the quiet plan for Hollywood's first true skyscraper, and by far the area's tallest structure ever, had not gone away.

If everything went according to plan, Columbia Square would be the largest and most expensive mixed-use project ever in the area. And much of the groundwork and lobbying would be over long before the general public heard a thing about it.

In keeping with the underground nature of the towering project, which would forever alter the skyline and obscure the Hollywood sign for thousands of people, the official Web site for Columbia Square -- 6121sunset.com -- says almost nothing, other than hailing the plan as “a classic Hollywood landmark updated for the 21st century." A few futuristic drawings are posted, and there's a standard mission statement of sorts, but the “project facts" section is gibberish, an alien code not intended to encourage civic debate.

Molasky Pacific and its partner, Apollo Real Estate Advisors, obviously want it this way. In Los Angeles, where developers have long held sway over a 15-member City Council that rarely says no to massive new projects, it is key to keep the public out of it as long as is legally possible. And it's why loose-tongued people like Chris Shabel can be dangerous -- secret, ugly truths may rile the public and stir up political problems for the council members, each of whom oversees one of 15 separate, incredibly influential fiefdoms and who all but control the lay of the land.

The skyscraper's developer, Mark Cassidy, suddenly withdrew from a scheduled interview with the L.A. Weekly, thought better of that, and set it up again -- then called it off for a second

time. No reason was offered, but the timing of the events coincided with his discovery that Shabel was talking to the Weekly. (Cassidy, however, chatted with me for a few moments at the cocktail party, with both his lawyer and his flack close by.)

So far, invite-only cocktail parties, an uninformative Web site and the delicate handling of activists and City Council President Eric Garcetti, whose fiefdom is the 13th District and spans much of Hollywood, seem to be working. Although a 40-story skyscraper will dramatically alter the Hollywood skyline, pull far more cars into an area that's essentially inaccessible at rush hour, and loom incongruously over a historic district of early-20th-century homes, casting it into shadow most of the year, there hasn't been much outcry.

None of the neighborhood people seems to realize the builder seeks to repeal a protective 45-foot height limit on the block, switching it to a “no-limit" district.