Pasadena Playhouse Sale Deal Reached

A tentative sale agreement for the historic Pasadena Playhouse complex has been reached between owner David Houk and Burbank-based real estate developer Greg Varon.

Houk said the Spanish Colonial Revival-style property will trade hands for “not quite” his asking price of $4.5 million.

The sale must be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court handling the Chapter 11 filing of Houk’s Pasadena Playhouse Associates. During that process, Varon’s offer could be outbid. But chances of that are unlikely because Varon was the only serious would-be buyer, said Coldwell Banker agent Bill Stimming, who represented Houk.

Varon could not be reached for comment.

The sale will not affect ongoing productions in the structure’s main auditorium. Those shows, including “A Life in the Theatre,” opening Sept. 16, are produced by Pasadena Playhouse State Theatre, a nonprofit organization that subleases the auditorium, backstage areas and several adjacent rooms from the city of Pasadena, which holds a lease on those spaces.

That leasing arrangement had been a barrier to interested buyers over the years, but Stimming said that Varon’s purchase is tax-driven and that “he’s not especially concerned with the cash flow the property will generate.”

Stimming said Varon plans to turn the top four floors of the structure’s tower, each with 6,000 square feet, into either residential lofts or offices and lease the downstairs restaurant space.

Houk has a 90-day option to lease back the small Balcony Theatre in the north wing of the building, over the restaurant space, and said he hopes to do so.

The complex, at 39 S. El Molino Ave., opened in 1925 and was designated the State Theatre of California by the Legislature in 1937.

When Houk began the process of buying the complex from the city of Pasadena in the late 1970s, the theater had been dark for several years and was in severe disrepair. Houk led the campaign to rejuvenate the property and said Friday that he had spent nearly $20 million in the process. The main auditorium reopened in 1986.

Houk’s production company provided the programming for a decade but ran into financial problems in the early 1990s, after which the nonprofit State Theatre group separated from Houk to continue running plays.