Hot property: H
Hollywood & Highland, which features downtown views, five levels of parking, three levels of shopping, movie theaters and a place to host the Oscars in about 500,000 square feet, has been sold for $200 million, which is somewhat less than its onetime estimated worth of $650 million.
While the mall is not a Mediterranean-style villa, architectural experts say there is no reason it cannot some day become one, particularly if the buyer sees the place as a fixer.
But any changes to the complex are pending the completion of a deal between the seller, Trizec Properties Inc. of Chicago, and the buyer, the CIM Group of Los Angeles.
“Our company has acknowledged a bit of mispositioning of this facility,” LeeAnne Stables, marketing officer for Trizec, was quoted in The Times as saying.
The mispositioning of Hollywood & Highland has led to speculation about whether the complex can be repositioned elsewhere and what this would entail. For instance, is it possible the entire mall could simply be lifted up, dropped again, and renamed Hollywood & Cahuenga?
The Hollywood & Highland complex, which also has views of the Hollywood Hills, features a 637-room luxury hotel, the 3,500-seat Kodak Theatre, master public bathrooms, no fountain (mistake!), a four-level parking garage, valets and five stories of confusing, maze-like walkways riddled with shops and restaurants that seem dormant, except for the California Pizza Kitchen.
Though the experience of ascending the complex’s various levels isn’t exactly like walking through the Guggenheim Museum in New York, you do have a similar sensation of going around and around and up and up, just without the reward of provocative or important art to view. Also, there are escalators if you get tired.
Hollywood & Highland opened late in 2001 to some fanfare. It features a grand staircase leading up from the sidewalk to the outdoor Babylon Court, which is apparently a replica of the set from the 1916 D.W. Griffith film “Intolerance.” Cultural observers said the complex would have been better off modeling the court after a more accessible movie, such as “Meet the Parents.”
The Academy Awards ceremony, first held in the Kodak Theatre in March 2002, was expected to create a buzz about the place, and it did -- for like five hours.
“We thought the stars would at least hang around for a nosh,” an insider said. “I guess we mispositioned on that one, too.”
After rumors surfaced that Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones planned to buy the property and convert it into a second, “in-town” Mediterranean-style villa when they didn’t feel like being driven from meetings in the Valley all the way back to their Mediterranean-style villa on the Westside, Trizec found a buyer in the CIM Group.
CIM plans to invest heavily in the left-turn-only signal at Highland Avenue and Johnny Grant Way. CIM was particularly encouraged when it commissioned a study that found that left-turn-only signals in Los Angeles will only appreciate in value in the coming years.
“Clearly, in a city where most intersections are left-turn-optional, the left-turn-only signal on Johnny Grant Way is the jewel in Hollywood & Highland’s crown,” a person familiar with the study said.
The complex will continue to play host to “On-Air with Ryan Seacrest,” a new daytime talk show that emanates from Babylon Court.
Hearing of the mall’s sale, Seacrest is to said to have made a bid on the left-turn-only signal, wanting to move it to a new home he is having built in Hidden Hills. The home, which has five bathrooms, eight bedrooms, a guest house with a bath and a half, another guest house with a shower but no toilet, a gym with many mirrors, several fountains, a media room, a game room, and a room where games are prohibited, is on 16.7 acres with canyon views.
Seacrest planned to use the left-turn-only signal to help remind him how to get from his driveway to the 101 Freeway. He has since hired a driver.
Paul Brownfield can be reached at paul.brownfield@latimes.com.
