Star DJ Calvin Harris says almost $25M lost in Hollywood ‘boondoggle’
In court documents, Harris alleges that his loan not been paid back for an ambitious Hollywood real estate project that hasn’t yet started construction
By Paula Mejía, Contributing LA Culture Editor
Sep 19, 2025 (SFGate.com)
Calvin Harris performs at the Coachella Stage during the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 15, 2023, in Indio, Calif.Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella
Four years ago, a sleek mixed-use real estate project in the heart of Hollywood — dubbed CMNTY Culture Campus — began pitching itself to investors and entertainment industry heavy-hitters as a unique haven for creatives. Helmed by entertainment manager Thomas St. John, the sprawling 13-story campus at Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue planned to devote more than 400,000 square feet to creative office spaces, another 55,000 square feet for recording and production studios, and 5,000 more for restaurants and retailers.
A few years in, cash for the project was apparently running dry — so St. John allegedly approached one of his longtime clients about chipping in: Adam Wiles, one of the world’s wealthiest DJs, who is better known by his stage name, Calvin Harris. Now, Harris is accusing his former financial adviser of theft, alleging that St. John stole nearly $25 million for the real estate project, which has yet to begin construction. In court documents, Harris’ lawyers categorize the deal with St. John as being “at best, a complete boondoggle, and at worst, a complete fraud.”
BEST OF SFGATE
History | Why a wealthy banker blasted a huge hole in a Bay Area cliff
Local | There’s a mansion hidden directly under the Bay Bridge
Culture | Inside the Bay Area’s cult-like obsession with Beanie Babies
Local | The world’s last lost tourist thought Maine was San Francisco
Get SFGATE’s top stories sent to your inbox by signing up for The Daily newsletter here.
Harris says he invested $10 million into St. John’s project and an additional $12.5 million to have a stake in the CMNTY Culture Campus project, according to an arbitration demand filed earlier this year in Los Angeles Superior Court. Harris alleges that St. John then distributed $11.7 million of those real estate investment funds to Dun & Dun LLC, a managing entity that St. John controls.
In court documents, Harris also alleges that he never received interest payments for the $10 million he allegedly loaned St. John through his business entity Lewsi LLC, to be paid back with 10% monthly interest by Jan. 31, 2025. Hollywood LLC — the organization behind the CMNTY plans — and St. John have not made any of the required payments to date, according to a petition to confirm the arbitration award filed last week. Additionally, Harris says that as an investor in the project, he was given “scant (and sometimes contradictory) information” about CMNTY’s progress along the way, his lawyers write in the arbitration demand.
Calvin Harris at the Brit Awards 2024 at The O2 Arena on March 2, 2024, in London.JMEnternational/Getty Images
Last year, the team behind the CMNTY Culture Campus endeavor dramatically changed the scope of the initial project. Instead of building out ample office space intended for creatives, the rethought project proposed building out two high-rises, standing at 34 and 38 stories, with 743 units between them and a five-story parking garage for residents, according to Urbanize LA. It would keep some retail space, in addition to the recording studio, all designed by HKS, the architectural firm behind SoFi Stadium.
In a statement provided to Urbanize, St. John said that the sagging commercial real estate market and the “urgent need for more housing in Los Angeles” had caused him to consider pivoting to a residential project. That didn’t seem like a sure bet either, though: “It may take at least two years to reach the point construction can begin, at which time the developers will read the market and decide between housing and offices,” The Los Angeles Times reported following the change.
This particular part of Sunset Boulevard has longstanding historical ties to the entertainment industry. The architectural marvel Crossroads of the World, where musicians such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young formerly held offices, sits there. The historic former Hollywood Reporter Art Deco building, which also housed the alt-weekly LA Weekly for a spell, remains on the street, though it’s a little worse for wear. As is the Hollywood Center Motel, a crumbling relic of a bygone era as seen on “The Rockford Files” and “L.A. Confidential” that applied for demolition permits earlier this year.
Through his lawyer, St. John denied all wrongdoing in a statement provided to Variety. St. John’s attorney and lawyers for Harris did not immediately respond to SFGATE’s request for comment.
More Los Angeles Coverage
—Swifties keep showing up at this historic Los Angeles dive bar
—‘The Ohtani Effect is real’: LA’s baseball king is a tourism unicorn
—A hidden lake in LA used to cost $30,000 to access. Now it’s free.
—One of Earth’s oldest plants sits in the Calif. desert, and no one cares
—The Oasis tour no one thought would last brings Los Angeles to tears
Get SFGATE’s top stories sent to your inbox by signing up for The Daily newsletter here.
Sep 19, 2025
CONTRIBUTING LA CULTURE EDITOR
Paula Mejía is a Colombian American writer and editor from Houston, Texas. She is a contributing culture editor at SFGATE, and was formerly the arts editor at the Los Angeles Times and a Senior Editor at Texas Monthly. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, GQ, Rolling Stone and more. A co-founding editor of “Turning the Tables,” NPR Music’s Gracie Award–winning series about centering women and nonbinary artists in the musical canon, she is also the author of a 33⅓ series installment on the Jesus and Mary Chain’s 1985 album Psychocandy. She teaches graduate arts writing at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and lives in Los Angeles.