Council Drops Efforts to Save Beverly Theater

The final curtain has fallen on the historic Beverly Theater in Beverly Hills.

The Beverly Hills City Council this week dropped its effort to save the theater after a council committee reported that it would cost the city nearly $23 million to take over and renovate the 57-year-old building.

Columbia Savings & Loan, which bought the theater about a year ago, issued a statement Wednesday announcing that demolition of the theater will “commence immediately” and will take about five months to complete.

A 3-story office building with underground parking will be built on the site, company officials said.

City Was ‘Best Shot’

“Columbia Savings & Loan has spent an enormous amount of time and showed great patience in working with the city of Beverly Hills, preservationists and area residents before making the decision to demolish the theater,” said Scott Ogilvie, a managing partner of Columbia Development Partners, a joint venture with Columbia Savings that will develop the office space.

Robert Carl Cohen, president of the Citizens Committee to Preserve Beverly Hills Landmarks, acknowledged after Tuesday’s City Council study session that the city had been the group’s best hope for saving the theater.

“Although we regret the decision, we understand the economics of the situation,” Cohen said. “All along we thought our best shot at saving the theater was with the city buying it.”

Under an agreement reached earlier this year among the city, the citizens committee and Columbia Savings, demolition was postponed to allow the city time to determine whether it could afford to buy the theater. The agreement also allowed Columbia to bulldoze the theater by June 24 if the city did not exercise its option to purchase by that date, which the city did not.

Preservationists tried to save the ornate building that once billed itself as “the theater where the stars see themselves” because it was designed by B. Marcus Priteca, who was one of the 10 most influential American architects of theaters, according to the Los Angeles chapter of the Historic Theater Foundation.

But even preservationists acknowledged that they were fighting a difficult battle. Land values along Wilshire Boulevard have reached at least $100 a square foot, city officials said, and there is no parking at the theater.

In addition, nearby residents have complained for many years about noisy and rude theater patrons who parked on residential streets and littered the neighborhood.

$1 Exchange Plan

Councilman Allan L. Alexander, who headed the council committee looking into the matter, said the city was hoping to take over the theater for $1 in exchange for allowing Columbia to build above city code limits on other properties it owns in the city. This concession by the city was estimated to be worth $17.5 million to Columbia.

That amount, combined with the $5.3 million to renovate the theater, would put a $22.8-million price tag on the 1,200-seat facility, Alexander said.

He said that in comparison, it would cost the city about $15 million to build a theater of similar size on property in the city’s industrial area.

He said those figures, combined with the fact that residents have never been asked whether they even want a theater, led to the conclusion that the city should not purchase of the theater.

Alexander also encouraged the City Council to develop a historical preservation code to protect other historic buildings in the city.