Coming Soon: The Red Whale?

As the Los Angeles Business Journal reports this week, a long-awaited expansion of the Pacific Design Center appears to now be on the fast track.

Joining the huge blue ("The Blue Whale") and green buildings will be a new red one. The third building would apparently complete the vision of architect Cesar Pelli. An economic slowdown in the late 80s and early 90s kept the red center on the design boards.

The Pacific Design Center, built in 1975, is on land that originally was used by the Pacific Electric "Red Cars" to house, service and turnaround the trains.

In other news:

:: The LABJ also reports that California Pizza Kitchen is seriously mulling moving into the Wolfgang Puck Cafe's old location next to the Virgin MegaStore at Crescent Heights and Sunset.

:: That 1960s-era Holiday Inn downtown near the Staples Center is about to turn into apartments, reports the Downtown News.

Writes the paper: MKT Community Development this month bought the Holiday Inn Downtown for $11 million and plans to turn the six-story structure into 205 studio apartments. The hotel's last guest will check out Sept. 6.

Bret Mosher, president of the Newport Beach-based firm, said the project will cater to young professionals, couples and students. While rents have yet to be determined, studios at the nearby Medici apartments fetch $1,360 a month.

:: West Hollywood is trying to stop businesses neighboring the town from using the phrase "Sunset Strip."

West Hollywood's boundaries end at Crescent Heights -- but that hasn't stopped businesses east of the street from still claiming they're a part of the Sunset Strip, the L.A. Times writes.

Says the paper: The "Sunset Strip" is their property, West Hollywood leaders say. And the name should not be applied to the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that extends east of their city into neighboring Hollywood.

"Sunset Strip — Only in West Hollywood" proclaim 120 new banners that hang from streetlights along the 1.7-mile length of boulevard that runs through the tiny town's city limits.

Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada calls the city "lunatic" for becoming such sticklers. But what does the Mayor of Sunset Strip have to say about all this? The L.A. Times asked Rodney Bingenheimer: "The Sunset Strip is part of Hollywood too," Bingenheimer said. "It really belongs to everyone. It's history. West Hollywood can't take the name.