N.Y. Landmark Will Get California Flair

New York’s Times Square will soon have an addition with a California flair.

The Jerde Partnership, the L.A. firm known for its colorful graphics at the ’84 Olympics and fanciful designs at the Horton Plaza and Westside Pavilion shopping centers, is designing a five-level, 140,000-square-foot retail/entertainment complex to be built at the base of a 45-story office tower already rising at Broadway and 45th Street.

And if you think “The Zipper” is something, just wait ‘til you see “The Whiz Bang”!

For those who haven’t seen it, The Zipper is that famous illuminated headline billboard built by the New York Times half a century ago to flash news bulletins on its namesake square. After seven years of darkness, it was reactivated in 1986 by New York Newsday at a $1 million a year fee.

“The Whiz Bang,” a marketing tool for the Jerde-designed complex, will be a five-story screen with neon, reader board and other capabilities for what has been described as “supersignage and a constantly changing array of images,” using the whole screen or many parts concurrently to promote the stores, restaurants and movie theaters.

In other words, if you think you see a lot of commercials on your home TV, you’re in for a BIG surprise when you come to Times Square in March, 1990, when the complex, a development of the Hahn Co., Eichner Properties and VMS Realty, is scheduled for completion. (Costs and exact dates aren’t yet available.)

And who’s the wizard behind The Whiz Bang? It’s Bran Ferren, who created special effects for the film “The Untouchables” and the Broadway production of “Cats.”

The Hollywood writers’ strike, still going strong last week since it started in March, is apparently having an effect now on Westside commercial real estate. Les Small of Cushman & Wakefield said, “I’m looking to sublease space for three major entertainment companies, which have taken time during the slow period created by the strike to consolidate their activities.”

In the meantime, PHH Walker has completed corporate headquarters for Orion Pictures in Century City, constructing a 100-seat screening room while demolishing and rebuilding three floors (75,000 square feet) of an office tower.

Nearby . . . there was a toast Wednesday to “Les Miserables” cast members at a celebration also marking completion of the $3-million renovation of the Century Plaza Hotel’s Lobby Court, “the first sunken lobby bar in the U.S.”

“The top price paid per square foot, probably in all of Beverly Hills” is what’s being said of this sale, which just went into escrow.

It’s the $23-million--$1,600 a square foot--purchase of a one-story retail building with 100 feet of frontage in the 300 block of Rodeo Drive. The building, once owned by film great Greta Garbo, houses a boutique and art gallery, which look like separate structures.

Johnny Maschio--who has been married to actress Constance Moore for 40 years and was a talent agent for such Hollywood legends as Fred Astaire, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda and Marilyn Monroe--is the listing agent, with L.J. Hooker International.

Singer Paul Anka and his wife have listed the five-bedroom home they built for themselves 10 years ago on a sunny 15-acre site on Jack’s Peak, above Pebble Beach with views of Carmel and Monterey.

They’re selling because he’s doing a lot of recording work in Las Vegas, I’m told, and the Ankas are, after all, Nevada residents. The house, which also has a tennis court and swimming pool, has been a second home for the couple and their five children, who are now mostly grown.

The place is listed with Brooks Barton, western vice president of Previews in Santa Barbara, who also just got the listing--again--on Marlon Brando’s atoll in the South Pacific. Price? It’s as mysterious as the actor himself.

“The price is negotiable,” Barton said, “because we’re mostly looking for a perfect marriage, a personality fit of the two parties.” The deal will involve a long-term leasehold to benefit Brando’s children.

“We had some offers for the full asking price when it was on the market before. We even had some offers from some L.A. developers,” Barton went on, “but Marlon has the right to turn down any he doesn’t agree with, and he desires to maintain the atoll in a genuine Polynesian fashion.”

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is in the news again--this week for upping the price on her Bel-Air house to $10 million. She had put the place on the market last month for $6.95 million with Ruth Hoffman of Mike Silverman’s office, who still has the listing. “What can I say?” Silverman responded about the price increase. “She checked the market, which is the hottest in years, and she knows there are Asian buyers out there, so she decided to ask $10 million. Owners call the shots.”

After buying the house about 10 years ago, Gabor built a ballroom and designed another room to remind her of the 1952 movie “Moulin Rouge” in which she starred. Before Gabor, the house was a residence of Elvis Presley and, at another time, Howard Hughes, said Silverman.

More on Pebble Beach . . . Alan B. Shepard Jr., the Apollo astronaut who shot some golf balls on the moon, can test his earth-bound golf skills in Pebble Beach, because he and his wife, Louise, own a house there.

And tycoon Marvin Davis is expected to draw more big names to the area as co-owner of the Pebble Beach Co., which is developing 80 townhouses next to the company’s already-open Inn and Links at Spanish Bay. Priced from $800,000 to $1.5 million, the first 20 homes are due to be completed by October.