Rumors in Downtown LA are pointing to ACE Hotel as the future of the United Artists Theater
The United Artists Theater has been purchased by Greenfield Partners,
a national hotel developer and real estate investment company based in
Norwalk, CT. The historic theater built in 1927–one of twelve beautiful
theaters on Broadway in Downtown LA–was purchased for $11 million from
the Wescott Christian Center with future development plans not
completely clear at this time.
Nevertheless, based on Greenfield Partner’s strong experience in developing hotels with
CEO, Gene Gorab, as one of the founding partners of Starwood Capital
Group, the fate of the United Artists Theater may be a bright one
repurposed for lodging and possibly more.
It is likely that a development partnership will form between
Greenfield Partners and someone else to take on this project, which
would be an incredible boon to Broadway. And rumor has it (from several
anonymous sources) that Seattle-based ACE Hotel
may be tapped for a special collaboration. The owner of ACE Hotel, Alex
Calderwood, denies involvement with the United Artists Theater in an
email to me several weeks ago, but the rumor persists, so time will
tell.
The possibility of activating the United
Artists Theater with an upscale boutique hotel (whether it’s an ACE or
any other well respected brand) is an exciting prospect as that would
fuel tremendous momentum into the Broadway revitalization plan. A
stone’s throw from the United Artists Theater is a bona fide
neighborhood forming with several residential buildings (Eastern
Columbia, Blackstone, Chapman, etc.) filled with full-time residents and
also new businesses like Pattern Bar
and the soon-to-open Umamicatessen are really putting southern Broadway
on the map. Having an exciting new hotel will surely create a strong
synergy that will hopefully reverberate north along Broadway.
The
United Artists Theater located just south of 9th Street on Broadway was
recently purchased by Greenfield Partners, a real estate investment
company that has strong experience in developing hotels
1 comment:
Chris Loos | October 12, 2011 at 8:17 am | Reply
Exciting news! One of the most beautiful buildings on Broadway, and one of those most in need of a renovation. A boutique hotel would be nothing short of transformational for this stretch of Broadway.
If things keep going at this pace, Broadway is going to be unrecognizable- in a good way- in 5 years.
Erik G. | October 12, 2011 at 12:55 pm | Reply
This is Gene Scott’s former HQ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_University_Cathedral
Stephen Brandt | October 12, 2011 at 5:39 pm | Reply
This is a great building, and a great scoop Brigham. Shortly after rehabbing the interior of the theatre, a friend of mine and I wanted to see how it had turned out. We called to inquire about tours and were told that there were not any, and that the church was only open during services, which required advance reservations. A lot of us growing up in Pasadena were all too familiar with Dr. Gene Scott, who would hold court at the the Huntington Sheraton around the corner from his home. He was always approachable, and quite interesting to talk to. As such, we thought that using the church service as a guise to get in the theatre would be somewhat easy. We arrived on time and were allowed to tour around. The place was beautiful, but there was a strange ambiance with his “posse” being all outfitted in Scottish like garb and never cracking a smile. When the service started he spoke of his love for the theatre (he called it his church) and had Mayor Tom Bradley up on stage with him. After Mayor Bradley sat down, Dr. Gene went over the “rules” of the service. He explained that it was a lesson and that nobody was permitted to get up, or especially to leave. He further explained that there would be two offerings and that he expected people to be generous. During the first offering, his “assistants” used long poles with satchels attached to them. The satchels had a one way slot, with a wooden depository slot, almost like a mail box. There was a very strong hinge on them and I suspect if you tried to put your hand inside of it, it would never come out. Surely this was by design. It was starting to get a little weird, and Dr. Gene did not seem as jovial as he had been all those times at the Huntington Sheraton, so we decided to leave, despite his warning. We stood up and started to walk out and Dr. Gene stopped the service and stared at us. There was dead silence, except for our footsteps. We could also feel the 2000ish or so other guests/parishioners staring at us as well. We walked through the lobby and the Scottish attired folks followed us to the door, 3 or 4 of them. We were parked a couple of blocks away, and they followed us all the way to our car. It was an experience not to be forgotten.
Tony | October 12, 2011 at 9:20 pm | Reply
We can only hope this is true. If it is, it will be a game changer for Broadway and for downtown. What downtown needs now is more hotel rooms. What broadway needs is healthy development and and emphasis on it becoming a major destination like Beale or Burbon Street.
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