Historic movie house, The Beverly Hills Fine Arts Theater has been put up for sale by Indian conglomerate Spice Global for $4 million. Opened in 1937, the 6,862-square-foot historic movie house was bought by Spice Global in 2010 and has been closed ever since. Spice Global, that maintains a domicile in Singapore, had planned to convert the 430-seat, single screen into a triplex and to show Bollywood films. Unfortunately or fortunately, the project didn’t recieve a formal approval from the Beverly Hills City Council.
Brian Dunne of commercial real estate brokerage NAI Capital,who has the listing, said, Right now they are saying, ‘We would be open to selling the property or to finding a joint venture [partner] to keep the movie operation going.’ They want to support this theater and keep it going – that’s why for the right joint venture partner, they would work for them. Everybody who loves films wants to keep it open.
Located on the south side of Wilshire one and half blocks west of La Cienega Boulevard, the theater – originally known as the Wilshire Regina Theatre, has been known by its screenings of That Girl From Paris, Black Legion and a newsreel and cartoon. Cecchi Gori USA, the Los Angeles-based U.S. arm of Italian film production company Cecchi Gori Pictures, had acquired the property in 1993.
