Add The California Post on Google Three luxury townhouse projects that have been left half-built for nearly a decade have descended into a horrific eyesore — as locals demand Los Angeles get the site cleaned up.
The plot, now known to locals as the “graffiti towers of Silver Lake,” shows abandoned shells of the three buildings with loose tarp covering the exterior at an intersection on Glendale Blvd.
Work began in 2017 with construction kicking into gear in 2019 before the wood framing was added back in 2023.
But despite the progress into what now resemble houses, the project has been left to rot and has attracted homeless people and stacks of litter inside and out.
Neighborhood activist Debbie Slater told The California Post: “We like to call it our graffiti tower of Silver Lake. It’s obviously not quite as much of an icon or whatever you want to describe it, but that’s sort of how it looks.
Over the last few years, the project has seen little to no progress, according to the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.
Slater told The Post the building process essentially stalled just after COVID. She continued: “Neighbors were concerned about some vagrancy.
“They filed complaints with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety and they would come by and would resecure the property.”
The owner is Hardy Wronske, head of Everelle Build Co, a developer who has sprung up dozens of other builds across the city while Glendale Blvd. remained gutted.
The Post visited the site this week and saw the wood framing of the three units covered in graffiti.
Wronske did not respond to repeated requests for comment but in response to an email from the council in January 2025, his wife Regina O’Brien Wronske insisted they were still working on the project.
She wrote: “Despite the challenges of the beginning of the year, and while workers can be seen doing smaller work on the exterior, we are very much very busy at that job site- attempting to finish rough MEP inspections within the next several weeks.
“At the moment we have multiple trades there daily plumbers, electricians, structural steel, sandblasters, etc. We anticipate major changes to the appearance by late March/April.
“Thank you for checking back- as we head towards the next round of inspections, we appreciate your offer of assistance.”
Slater says her biggest worry is safety: “My biggest concern is if you look at it, it doesn’t look safe any longer. Potentially structurally, but health wise, I don’t think it’s going to be safe,” she said.
Nikos Constant, a Silver Lake Neighborhood Council board member, criticized the City’s failure to properly vet projects while acknowledging the red tape can make it difficult for developers to navigate.
“Some of these people have big dreams, and then you kind of think, well, OK, you’ve got a big dream, you’ve got a big vision, but do you have the sophistication level to back it up?
“And, I don’t think that the city really vets on sophistication level,” Constant’s said, adding that the city has a “ton of rules” that can make it difficult for people to follow.
The property sits in LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman’s district, whose office told The Post they’ve “been working closely with the Department of Building & Safety (DBS) to address the delayed project.”
“DBS issued an Order to Comply to the property owners last month, giving them 30 days to remove visible violations from the property, such as rubbish, debris, and graffiti, as well as apply for a supplemental permit to complete the work on this project,” Councilmember Raman’s office said.
“DBS will now conduct a re-inspection to determine compliance, and we remain in contact with residents in the area to keep them informed.”
The Post reached out multiple times for comment from DBS for the status of that inspection and what is being done to address the concerns from residents, but have not heard back.
A source told The Post DBS did in fact visit the site and issued a noncompliance fee to the owner as well as referred the property to the investigation division.
But Slater said the process to get any real action from DBS is broken, and developers know how to exploit loopholes that allow a construction site to sit unfinished and in disrepair for years.
“The loophole with building and safety is if you at least make some kind of strides and continuation on the property, then the project is considered still in process,” Slater told the Post.
“So, you don’t have to reapply for permits and et cetera — they can throw in some windows and be like, look, we’re working.”
Instead, Constant wants the City to take more aggressive steps to remedy the situation he described as a “blight.”
“Maybe we need to threaten the developer with eminent domain,” he said, adding that ”there are other legal avenues to go that the city doesn’t seem to want to go.”
Realistically, Slater, believes it’s more likely to drag out for years with Wronske “playing the shell game with the City and doing the bare minimum they need to do.
“I truly don’t think this project will ever be finished,” She added. “It will either just continue in this round robin or eventually the lender will own the property.”
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