Studio Ride to Get the Shakes

Universal Studios Tour unveiled the first phase of a $140-million plus expansion in June, but last week, Ron Bension, the group’s president, told me some details about the next phase, which will open its first attraction in November.

“It will be the ultimate California attraction,” he said. Called “Earthquake,” it will be a tram ride with a simulated earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale.

The second attraction of the $30-million Phase 2 will be the 30,000-square-foot “Back to the Future,” based on the 1985 movie starring Michael J. Fox. “It will be multi-sensory and will open next summer,” Bension said.

He wouldn’t say more about that, or Phase 3, which is still in planning, but noted that Phase 2 will have more street sets, this time focusing on Europe. Four sets designed by Doug Ewing to represent such streets as one in the movie “American Graffiti” were built by Tri-Star as part of the $50-million Phase 1.

“We’re presently looking for (street) concepts in France, Spain and Italy,” Bension said.

It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it, right? Actually, the somebodys aren’t typical architects but set designers and art directors, because the work is tied in with film research and Hollywood magic.

Speaking of magic, how do you turn 2 1/2 acres into more than 20? “The key is the seven-story parking facility,” Bension said.

As part of Phase 1, a 2,850-space garage was built by Tutor-Saliba on a 2 1/2-acre parking lot. Using the hillside slopes as part of the garage design by Joe Jennings, Universal gained 4 1/2 acres, on the top of the structure, for the street sets, a 2,300-seat theater and the new attractions. In addition, Bension figures there are 21 acres of parking spaces in the facility.

Because of the expense of California real estate, Bension noted, “we used the hilly site and took advantage of every slope and square inch we had.” And the structure increased the tour’s parking capacity by 50%!

Burt Reynolds put his Holmby Hills house on the market last week for $6 million with Elaine Young of Alvarez, Hyland & Young, Beverly Hills.

The handsome actor has been toying with selling the gated Mediterranean home with two guest houses, swimming pool, projection room and two family rooms--all on an acre--for some time, though Young says he does not intend to leave the area. Why list it now? Maybe he just wants a change, or maybe he wants a new home for his bride of 2 1/2 months, actress Loni Anderson.

Actor Harrison Ford, Tom Selleck Properties and 11 other parties have sold their Malibu shopping center on the southeast corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Cross Creek Road.

Cross Creek Preservation Co., a group headed by Steven Soboroff and Richard Green, bought the 4.5-acre property, owned primarily by Harrison and Melissa Ford, for $6 million.

“It was sold because there were so many partners, nobody had control. Otherwise, Selleck Properties would have done as good a job as us renovating it,” Soboroff said. Soboroff has remodeled several buildings along Santa Monica’s Montana Avenue, and Green is president of the Westside Pavilion.

They are planning to put more than $2 million into renovating the Malibu center before it reopens in August with a contemporary look created by Rothenberg Sawasy AIA Architects, of Los Angeles. The renovation is already half completed, since it was begun during escrow, which closed a few days ago.

Soboroff plans to turn the 30,000-square-foot building now occupied by Hughes Market into 12 stores as soon as Hughes moves to the nearby development where Wolfgang Puck will open his newest restaurant. Soboroff has lined up a pharmacy, bookstore, record store, deli and a La Scala’s restaurant as tenants.

KABC radio fans of psychiatrist David Viscott can now find their idol--when he’s not off broadcasting, lecturing, writing, overseeing seminars on a cruise to Mexico or doing whatever else his fertile mind conjures--at the 10-story Wilshire-San Vicente Plaza, Beverly Hills’ largest high-rise, at 8383 Wilshire Blvd.

Viscott has leased nearly 2,000 square feet of office space for three years from JMB Property Management. The Viscott Center for Natural Therapy will occupy the offices. It offers a program based on short-term therapy “to get to the heart of the problem quickly.” (What? No years of analysis? How refreshing!)

Along with counseling, Viscott’s patients will get a view, because his second-floor offices are among the few in the building that overlook a roof garden. Before moving there, Viscott operated his 4-year-old center, known until the move as the Viscott Institute, out of Sherman Oaks.

“Ask any broker,” Thom Coleman, assistant vice president of Pacific Sunbelt Mortgage Corp., says. “The nightmare starts when they try to get financing.” And just try to get financing on those $10-million-type estates!

Fortunately, there are a few lending avenues for these megabuck transactions, and Coleman says he has one of them.

Even for a big home that requires two appraisals, he claims his Santa Ana firm can “lock in a rate in 45 days” and arrange a loan--through a major insurance company--for as much as 70% or even 75% of the mortgage.

“All it takes is good equity, good credit and the ability to pay back,” he said, noting that his company has arranged loans for a $20-million house on Long Island and a $12-million home in Beverly Hills, as well as for many lower-priced residences.

This is more than a hot property. It’s a hot street, says Harriet Dolin Stuart, who recently moved her design and planning offices from a little house about a block from the Pacific Design Center to 8450 Melrose Place.

“It’s the most magical street in town,” she said of Melrose Place, where singer Neil Diamond also has his offices in a series of 50-year-old buildings, originally apartments, joined together in a courtyard-like setting.

Stuart, who--with her daughter, Madeline--manufactures art furniture when not designing and planning residences, is working on a remodel for producer Jack Haley Jr., who has lived in his Hollywood Hills house for years. “We could have built a new place for what he’s spending to fix it up,” she said, estimating it at over $1 million.