The Fox Village Theatre, a Westwood landmark for more than 90 years, has been sold to filmmaker Jason Reitman and an unnamed group of investors.
Newmark, the Irvine-based commercial real estate firm that completed the sale, didn’t reveal the seller or buyer of the property. But a Jan. 31 posting on theankler.com and a subsequent report in the Hollywood Reporter named Reitman and the investors as the buyer.
A San Francisco Chronicle property data site listed the seller as a trust run by Dr. Jeffrey Seltzer, based in La Jolla.
The price wasn’t disclosed, although reports circulated last summer that the property was “up for grabs” for $12 million in a listing by Newmark’s Capital Markets division.
The 24,099-square-foot Fox Village complex at intersection of Weyburn and Braxton avenues includes the 17,155-square-foot, Mediterranean-style theater and 6,944 square feet of retail space featuring a Starbucks coffee shop. The property is hard to miss, with its striking 170-foot art-deco tower that’s neon lit at night and can be seen from surrounding communities.
Carved winged lions sit halfway up the tower at the base of its projecting columns and a blue and white sign emblazoned with “Fox Westwood Village” is positioned at the bottom above the entrance.
The theater was featured in the Quentin Tarantino film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and has hosted many film premieres and screenings. It was named a historic-cultural monument in 1988.
“The Fox Village Theatre is not merely a property, it is a cornerstone of Los Angeles’ culturallegacy,” said Steven Salas, Newmark’s senior managing director, said in a statement. “Its rich history, combined with the architectural marvel, has made it an iconic landmark.”
The property held an 84% occupancy rate at the time of the sale, Newmark said.
Some history
Built in 1929 and designed by Percy Park Lewis, the Fox Village Theatre has a distinguished history dating back to its grand opening in 1931.
It was remodled in 1951, boosting its seating capacity to 1,535. In 1973, National General Theatres sold it to Ted Mann, owner of the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and the Mann Theatres chain.
New 70mm projection equipment and a larger screen were installed in the late 1970s and the Fox underwent another remodel in 1998 with new seating and carpeting.
Mann Theatres went out of business in 2010 and Regency Theatres assumed ownership of the Fox, along with the Village Theatre and a multiplex cinema in Van Nuys.
In 2014, Regency added an immersive Dolby sound system to the theater, and in 2019 it was upgraded with state-of-the-art THX audiovisual technology.
It’s not known whether Reitman plans to either keep the Fox as a first-run theater or add additional screens.
