Local : Japanese to Buy 100% of Riviera Country Club, Site of L.A. Open

The Riviera Country Club, fashionable site of the Los Angeles Open golf tournament, will be bought by the Japanese company that took a 49% interest in the club last year.

Marukin Shoji Co. Ltd. has notified the owner of the club frequented by Hollywood celebrities that it intends to exercise an option to buy the remaining 51% of the Riviera for $55.1 million in cash, the owner said today.

The deal is expected to close by Aug. 31, said LAACO Ltd., which owns the Riviera, Los Angeles Athletic Club and the California Yacht Club.

Marukin Shoji paid $52.9 million to buy 49% of the golf and tennis club from LAACO in August, 1988. The deal gave the Japanese real estate and construction company a one-year option to buy the rest of the 168-acre club on the city’s Westside.

The firm has reassured the 1,500 members of the exclusive club that it intends to honor current memberships, said Alex Auerbach, a spokesman for Marukin Shoji.