Business Development | City of West Hollywood

Our City is home to innovative industries and a magnet for highly skilled professionals. Companies ranging from retail, tourism and nightlife, restaurants, entertainment and media, as well as arts and design are drawn to West Hollywood’s creative workforce as well as its high quality of life.

Whether you want to open a business, expand an existing business, you are considering a development project or you are a broker representing properties in our City, our staff is available to assist you and your company through its business planning process.

For more information, please email Business@weho.org.

Economic Data Dashboard

Wildfire Resources to Business & Workforce

While businesses within the City of West Hollywood have not sustained any physical damage, we are aware of the financial impacts that have continued as a result of the wildfires around the area to businesses and workers. The following resources are available to businesses and workers within the City of West Hollywood:

SBA Business Recovery Center: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has opened a Business Recovery Center (BRC) at the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, located at 8272 Santa Monica Blvd., to assist businesses and residents who sustained economic losses and physical damages from the wildfires and straight-line winds. The business recovery center will be available Thursdays through Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. No appointment is necessary. For questions contact the SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.
Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL): Working capital loans of up to $2 million to help small businesses meet their ordinary and necessary financial obligations that cannot be met as a direct result of the disaster. These loans are intended to assist through the disaster recovery period. The City of West Hollywood is located within a declared disaster area for the Wildfires and Straightline Winds (Disaster # CA-20030). For more information, please contact (800) 659-2955.
Grants for Food & Beverage Workers: Restaurants Care opened a temporary fund to provide emergency relief grants to food and beverage workers impacted by the Los Angeles Area Fires. Grants will range between $350-$1,500. Grants will be awarded based on need and available funding. Note: not all qualified applicants will be awarded funding due to the tremendous need and limited funds.
WeHoWorks Career Resource Center: WeHo Works collaborates with job seekers who live or work in West Hollywood, providing free job search skills training and job placement assistance. WeHoWorks also collaborates with employers, and hosts employer recruitments. WeHoWorks is located in the Wells Fargo Career Development Center in the West Hollywood Public Library. JVS WeHoWorks offers job seekers the choice of programs, intensive career and job search services, workshops and/or self-service options that include access to computers, phones and current job listings-all at no cost to eligible applicants.

City of West Hollywood Minimum Wage

Helpful City Services for Businesses

Find Commercial Properties in West Hollywood

Steps to Start a Business

Start here to get all the information you need to start a new business or grow your existing business.

Once you've found a property in West Hollywood, make an appointment with the City's planning staff to confirm the zoning and any required permits needed before signing a lease. Reach out to the Business Development Division if you have any concerns about operating your business at a certain location.
Determine the Parking Requirements for Your Business
All businesses within the City of West Hollywood must register for a business tax certificate with the City's Revenue Division. Find out what tax category your business falls within and what forms you will need to submit and register for a business tax certificate.
Determine if you need a business license from our Neighborhood and Business Safety Division.
Partner with the various business organizations in the City of West Hollywood.

Commercial Parking Requirements

Are you looking to open or expand a business in West Hollywood? We’ve got great news – it just got easier. The City approved a comprehensive update to our commercial parking requirements. Key provisions of the update are summarized below:

Change in Use: The update allows a change of use to occur (i.e. change from retail to restaurant) within an existing building or tenant space that is less than 6,000 SF to without requiring additional parking. What does that mean for you? If the building or tenant space you’re intending to lease meets the requirements above (less than 6,000 SF and existing prior to December 19, 2018) then the parking that is currently on site, is all the parking that is required for your business. Of course, if you’d like to secure additional parking you may do so through an off-site lease agreement, valet service or through City parking credits, if applicable.
Baseline Parking Requirements: The minimum baseline parking requirement for nearly all commercial uses has been significantly reduced. The minimum baseline requirements apply to new construction and a change of use in a building or tenant space greater than 6,000 SF and/or a building or tenant space constructed after December 19, 2018. Click here to view the minimum parking requirement for all business types.
Existing Businesses: Existing businesses, including those that lease off-site parking or satisfy their parking obligation through the City’s parking credits program, may apply to have their parking obligation reduced to the new minimum baseline parking standard. Additionally, businesses that have underutilized on-site parking may also apply for a reduction in their parking obligation, which would free up the business to lease the surplus spaces to employees or neighboring businesses. If you are an existing business and interested in reducing your parking requirement, please contact the Business Development Division and we’ll walk you through the steps.

What if I can’t meet the minimum number of required parking spaces on-site? The City provides options for business owners who can’t provide the minimum number of required parking spaces on-site, including the parking credits program and parking use permit option. Click the links below to learn more about each option.

Parking Credits Program

Southern California Edison (SCE) Helpful Information

Southern California Edison (SCE)

Whether you are requesting to upgrade or install new electrical service, or require an electric meter set, everything you need to develop and complete your project is available through SCE’s Local Planning department. We encourage our customers to reach out to SCE early in your project to discuss your energy needs. SCE Planners will work with you to help set the stage for new engineering and construction projects. For further information, please go to:

Southern California Edison's Local Planning

New Development Project Management

Real Properties/Easements

Additional Resources:

GIS Power Site Search Tool
Looking to locate or expand your business in Southern California? Our GIS Power Search Tool can help your company locate power and broadband fiber ready sites in SCE's territory. Users can access an interactive web portal that provides public access to general locations of SCE distribution circuits and substations, including electrical load and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) hosting capacity by circuit. Please access the link below which also includes a link to a User’s Guide for your convenience.

GIS Power Site Search Tool
Engineering Analysis Report
Would you like to know how and when SCE can serve your new/ expansion project? Please consider the below items:
- SCE piloted an optional study where customers may request an Engineering Analysis Report as a load capacity study to determine if power is available at the requested location in an area as well as a timeframe for building new infrastructure, if needed, to meet the customers power needs. The cost for this study is $2,000. SCE strives to complete these studies in 30 business days. This study does NOT reserve power but is intended to provide direction to the customer for planning their projects. Additional Fees may apply for projects deemed to be speculative.
- Contact economicdevelopment@sce.com for more information.

Economic Development Resources

SCE’s Economic Development Advisors provide one-on-one, specialized consulting service at no cost to you. After assessing your unique business issues, we’ll propose a package of available incentives, tools and programs to reduce your operating costs and help make your business more competitive.

So whether you’re looking to expand your business, your current lease is expiring, you’re planning a move to Southern California, or have considered leaving California, talk to us first at economicdevelopment@sce.com. See the link below for more information.

Economic Development Services | Consulting Services | Your Business | Home - SCE

Energy Efficiency Incentive Programs

Energy Efficiency (EE) programs can help you save energy and contribute to a clean energy future. You can directly contact a third-party company (i.e., not affiliated with SCE) for many of these programs. You can learn more about the various third-party programs listed below and how they may be able to help you conserve energy and lower your energy costs. See the link below for more information.

Third-Party Energy Efficiency Programs (sce.com)

Commercial Cannabis Operators

Commercial cannabis operations are encouraged to adopt energy efficiency best practices. See below for more information:

Southern California Edison commercial business customers may be eligible to receive rebates or incentives for adopting certain energy efficiency measures. For more information and a list of available energy efficiency programs, please visit: Efficiency Programs
Resource Innovation Institute (RII) is a non-profit organization that offers resources to promote efficiency in the field of controlled environment agriculture (CEA), including best practice guides, case studies, industry reports and energy use benchmarking tools. For more information, please visit: Resource Innovation Website

Transportation Electrification

Southern California Edison’s Charge Ready Transport Program

Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Charge Ready Transport (CRT) program provides make-ready electric infrastructure to qualifying customers procuring at least 2 medium-heavy-duty (MDHD) electric vehicles (EV). Through the program, SCE covers the cost of distribution infrastructure upgrades on both the utility-side and customer-side of the meter up to the first point of interconnection with a customer’s charging equipment. The program also provides charging equipment rebates up to 50% for eligible customers.

Email chargereadytransport@sce.com, your dedicated SCE Account Manager or Ramiro Lepe (ramiro.lepe@sce.com) to get started. Visit crt.sce.com/overview for more information.

Southern California Edison’s New Construction Rebate (NCR) (www.sce.com/ncr)

NCR gives multifamily property owners holding title (on properties in development or built 2017 or after) up to $3500 for every EV charging port they install. Other benefits of NCR include:

No minimum or maximum ports required - a customer can apply for as little as 1 port, or 150 ports, as examples
3 years of reserved funding - once the program agreement is signed, SCE reserves funding per port requested (e.g. $3500 x 10 planned ports = $35,000) for up to 3 years, giving property owners time to vet, purchase and install the right EV charging station for their property
A curated list of EV charging station companies to work with – property owners get to pick EV charging stations off SCE’s Approved Product List (www.sce.com/apl), from companies that are carefully vetted and up-to-date on California EV charging rules and regulations

Email chargeready@sce.com, your dedicated SCE Account Manager or Naveed Ahmad (naveed.h.ahmad@sce.com) to get started. Visit sce.com/ncr for more information.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) INFRASTRUCTURE RULE 29

Rule 29 was designed to help customers reduce cost and simplify the process of installing EV infrastructure for commercial, industrial and multifamily properties. Under this tariff, SCE will cover the costs for design and deployment of line extensions to customer meter panels and pedestals for EV charging stations. See the link below for more information.

EV Rule 29 Fact Sheet 0622_WCAG (sce.com)