By Barry Lank

Silver Lake - Silver Lake - Two brothers are reshaping a key section of Sunset Boulevard near Sunset Junction, with two projects completed and possibly four more endeavors now in the planning stages.

Together, the projects would make Daniel and Ryan Neman among the largest real estate developers in Silver Lake. Their multi-storied projects would stand in contrast to the mostly one-and-two story buildings that line the boulevard, bringing in hundreds of new residents as well as new shops and businesses -- if completed.

The Eastsider has reached out to the Neman brothers at their company, RYDA, for comment but has not received a response. However, online public filings and previous news stories provided a picture of the brother's growing impact on Silver Lake.

The latest project from the Neman brothers: Plans to replace an auto repair shop in the 3200 block of Sunset Boulevard near Descanso Street with a mixed-use project with 82 residential units and commercial space.

The 7-story building that the Nemans want to construct on the current site of Sunset Body Works would be much larger than the 3-story building that would normally be allowed because they are proposing to include eight units of affordable housing. The Nemans also want to provide less parking and open space in return for providing affordable housing, according to their Planning Department application.

This would be the third large residential project the Nemans are involved in within three blocks of each other on Sunset.

The Neman brothers come from an entrepreneurial family

The brothers come from a family that has been involved in textile wholesaling and real estate, according to the L.A. Business Journal. Their older brother, Jonathan, is co-founder of Sweetgreen, the salad and food bowl chain that opened a restaurant in Sunset Junction.

At the Neman's development company, RYDA, Daniel oversees development and construction for new company projects, according to the company website Ryan handles firm’s acquisitions, finance, and property management.

"We could not have been more perfect brothers and business partners because we are the 100 percent opposites of each other," Ryan told the Business Journal. "Our personalities are completely different. I am more of a do-first, think-after type of guy. Daniel is more of a high-level strategic thinker. Sometimes it takes both of those to come to a good solution."

Silver Lake residential & retail developments on Sunset Boulevard

Some of the other Neman projects include:

• The Planning Department in 2019 approved the brother's plans to build a four-story, 104 unit residential development with ground-floor shops, replacing a former evangelical church and a small strip of storefronts. The property, which was purchased for $7.8 million in 2016, sits on the same block where RYDA has proposed its 7-story project.

• RYDA is apparently involved in a project to build a five-story, 74-unit apartment project at Sunset and Reno Street, next to Los Globos nightclub. In return for including eight-affordable apartments, the Planning Department has signed off on allowing the project to be much larger than would normally be allowed.

• A filing with the Ethics Commission indicates that RYDA hired a lobbying firm in connection with a potential mixed-use development at 3300 Sunset, a former auto repair facility right across the street from where the Neman brothers plan to build 104 units of housing. However, recent building permits indicate there are also plans to convert the auto repair shops into a restaurant and retail complex.

• The Neman brothers’ company renovated the former Pop Physique building space at Sunset and Golden Gate Avenue, which is currently occupied by Kreation Organic Juicery and other tenants.

• Two blocks away, the brothers turned another former auto body shop into a a restaurant-retail space facing Sunset Triangle Plaza. That corner building has leased space with a gluten-free bakery and a smash burger takeout restaurant.

The company’s web page also lists four other projects elsewhere in the city, including the conversion of the 1925 Craftsman in Los Feliz from a medical office to retail space.

All this from a company that was only founded in 2014.

An affiliate of developer RYDA has submitted plans to construct an 82-unit mixed-use project at 3209 – 3227 W. Sunset Blvd. in the Silver Lake neighborhood, a planning case filed by the city on Friday shows.

The project would rise on a 22,500-square-foot, four-parcel lot that since 1951 has been used for the storage and use of hazardous materials for automotive service-related activities, according to applications materials. Any construction would be preceded by the removal of two abandoned underground storage tanks under oversight by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The LA developer is seeking an off-menu, 42.5-percent density bonus through a conditional-use permit (above a 57-unit base density), as well as other off-menu incentives including a 34-percent decrease in residential parking and a height increase from 45 feet to about 80 feet, plans show.

Plans call for 70 residential parking spaces along with a waiver on the 50-space commercial parking requirement to zero spaces. The majority of parking spaces would be provided through Park Plus Automated Parking System, an automated parking stacker for vehicle retrieval and storage in vertical and horizontal arrays, application materials show.

The project would also provide about 8,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space and 80 bicycle spaces.

The residential portion would contain 44 studios, 24 one-bedroom units, and 14 two-bedrooms, with eight units reserved for very low-income households. The project would also provide about 5,700 square feet of common open space, including roof terraces totaling about 4,000 square feet and roughly 1,760 square feet of lounge and fitness areas, plans show.

An RYDA affiliate recently acquired the project site for just over $9 million, according to a transaction recorded with Los Angeles County in 2019.

The developer is joined by project architect MVE + Partners and land-use consulting company Irvine & Associates.

The Silver Lake project site has been occupied in part by Sunset Body Works, an auto body shop.

Sunset Reno LLC has filed application paperwork this month to construct a 74-unit apartment building in LA’s Silver Lake neighborhood. The venture leading the five-story project includes Local Development LLC founder Jason Grant as well as RYDA, an LA-based development firm, the filings show.

The project would rise at 3004-3016 W. Sunset Blvd. and 951 N. Reno St. and consist of 74 units – 26 studios, 42 one-bedrooms, and six two-bedrooms – in almost 50,000 square feet of new development.

If it receives Transit-Oriented Communities Incentives Program Tier-1 approval, it would rise an extra 11 feet to 56 feet in height and include a 50 percent density bonus representing 25 units more than the 49 allowed otherwise. To that end, plans call for six units to be reserved for households at extremely low incomes. The project site is also within half a mile of multiple bus lines.

RYDA has laid claim to several projects around LA in recent years, including in Silver Lake. It renovated a 4,200 square foot retail property at 3501 Sunset Blvd and was doing another similarly sized redevelopment at 1529 Griffith Park Blvd. in January. The developer is also behind redevelopment projects elsewhere in the city like Third & Traction in DTLA’s Arts District neighborhood. Neither RYDA nor Grant responded to request for comment.

The duo’s new Silver Lake project, named 3004 Sunset in its application, calls for 64 parking spaces (over the 40 required for its scale) spread between ground floor and subterranean levels. Mark Lahmon of Lahmon Architects is listed as the project architect, while Mark Tessier Landscape Architecture is shown as landscape architect.

A surface parking lot along a busy stretch of Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lakecould be poised for development, according to an application recently submitted to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning.

The project, slated for a roughly .4-acre property at 3004 Sunset Boulevard, is described in its case filing as a five-story edifice containing 74 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments and semi-subterranean parking for 64 vehicles.

Requested entitlements for the proposed development include Transit Oriented Communities incentives permitting increased height, floor area, and density beyond zoning limits, as well as reductions to required on-site open space and side-yard setbacks. Six apartments would be set aside as deed-restricted affordable housing in exchange for the incentives.

Lahmon Architects is designing the apartment complex, which is depicted in elevation plans as a contemporary low-rise structure clad in shades of grey, black, white, and red stucco, as well as other materials. Planned common amenities include two rooftop decks, a central courtyard, and a fitness center, according to architectural plans.

The owners of the property are listed as Ignacio and Rosa Placido.

The project site is located a few blocks south of Vica, a similar development featuring multifamily housing and retail at 3400 Sunset Boulevard.

Developer RYDA Ventures is planning a live-work building with commercial space in Silver Lake, almost three years after purchasing a retail strip of properties.

The Los Angeles-based firm filed plans this week to build 104 live-work units and 9,050 square feet of commercial space, records show. The four-story complex would rise over five parcels from 3303-3327 W. Sunset Boulevard.

RYDA purchased the retail strip from a church — which also had a property there — for $7.8 million in May 2016. The existing properties encompass 27,500 square feet.

The developer is taking advantage of incentives from L.A.’s Transit-Oriented Communities program to increase the height and reduce the required open space. Such bonuses are allowed for projects that provide affordable housing near public transportation stops, and they have seemingly turned into commonplace strategy for developers throughout the city.

RYDA, led by brothers Ryan and Daniel Neman, has developed retail and restaurant space in Los Feliz and in the Arts District. Earlier this year, the firm sold the Pettebone building in Downtown L.A. to a South Korean gaming developer for $22 million. RYDA had converted the 43,030-square-foot building to creative office space.

Restaurateur Dana Hollister’s long-planned conversion project is also finally coming to fruition in Silver Lake. Earlier this year, she filed plans to change the Pilgrim Church on Griffith Park Boulevard into a hotel with a restaurant and bar. READ MORE

A Santo Domingo-based Church has sold its Los Angeles hub of worship to two brothers in the business of developing trendy restaurants and retail, The Real Deal has learned.

A nonprofit associated with the Iglesia De Cristo Ministerios sold a retail strip in Silver Lake’s main drag on Wednesday to RYDA Ventures for $7.8 million. The property includes its strip-mall church at 3301 West Sunset Boulevard, one of about a dozen in the United States, according to the church’s website. Its lease goes until July, after which it will close.

When the church purchased the property in 1990, Silver Lake​ was prominently hispanic, said Christine Bullard of Nourmand and Associates’ Hollywood office, who represented the church in the sale. The congregation is still hispanic and the sermons are in Spanish, but Silver Lake, over the last 26 years, has gentrified. Because of this, the church wanted to sell the property and move to a hispanic location, Bullard said.

The five retail parcels total approximately 27,500 square feet at 3303-3327 West Sunset Boulevard. Tenants include the hair salon Silver Lake Studio, which is leased until 2018, and California Gold Tattoo Parlor, which has a similar lease. The Sweat Spot, which holds “body-positive dance aerobics” classes , as well as Franky’s Record and Barber Shop — which also sells vintage clothes — are on month-to-month leases. Hache LA, a gourmet burger joint, has a lease until 2024.

The strip is hip, which seems to be RYDA’s calling card. Ryan Neman, the former real estate manager for Sweetgreen, founded RYDA ventures in 2014 with his brother, Daniel, formerly of Legend Real Estate Management. Last year, the firm acquired a 100-year-old bungalow in Los Feliz that used to serve as a doctor’s office for $2.2 million with plans to turn it into two restaurants. Also listed on the firm’s website is the Arts District strip that includes the Poketo store.

The RYDA brothers’ plans for the site are not known. They could not immediately be reached for comment.

Bullard was assisted by Howard Lorey and Carolyn Rae Cole of Nourmand and Associates. Oron Maher of Coldwell Banker represented the Nemans.