Television Academy Buys Theater, Conference Center

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has purchased the 600-seat Academy Plaza Theatre and a conference center here for less than half what it cost to build the complex six years ago.

The theater has been renamed the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre after the retired chairman of ABC television who donated $1 million to help buy the site, the academy said.

“This is probably one of the finest theaters in Los Angeles, with the latest state of the art equipment,” said Herb Jellinek, the TV Academy’s chief financial officer.

He said the theater will be used to screen films and television programs for its membership, and will be rented out for commercial use. The Academy had been a tenant in the theater since it opened in 1991.

Jellinek said the theater can show 16-, 35- and 70-millimeter films and also has the latest videotape equipment.

The theater and conference center were built in 1990-91 for about $6.5 million at what was the height of the local commercial real estate boom, he said. The real estate market then went into a nose dive for much of this decade.

The TV Academy bought the theater and conference center last week for less than half its original construction cost, Jellinek said.

The sale was concluded with KG Land Development Co., a Japanese firm that owned the building.

The area along Lankershim and Magnolia was part of a 22-acre revitalization project conceived by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency.

The TV Academy has its offices in a building next-door to the Goldenson Theatre, and Jellinek said his group has an option to buy that site as well.