LOS ANGELES — Oscar madness is over at the Kodak Theater at Hollywood & Highland, but, according to officials at CIM Group, which acquired the property on Friday, the action is just beginning.
The Hollywood-based real estate firm finalized the purchase of the complex — comprising 387,000 square feet of retail, Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel — from Chicago-based Trizec Properties Inc., and said it will put more than $20 million into the property.
The purchase price was $201 million.
CIM, which owns and has developed Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, Old Pasadena and Birch Street in downtown Los Angeles, said its goal is to attract more local shoppers to the complex.
Improvements will include more escalators, a revamp of the Babylon court and more tenants to attract the local community.
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Trizec opened the complex in November 2001, sinking about $650 million into the project, but the center never caught on with locals. Instead, L.A. residents gave the site’s design mixed reviews and flocked to another new retail center, The Grove, in West Hollywood. In 2002, Trizec wrote down the value of its investment to $200 million and put the property on the block.
According to analysts, the property was performing at 15 to 20 percent under its projections of $500 a square foot.
Although a financial drain on Trizec, Hollywood & Highland succeeded in bringing the Academy Awards back to Hollywood and sparked a revival of the run-down area. — K.Y.