Another Investor Shows He's Bullish on Chinatown.

CHINATOWN may have seen better days, but a lot of real estate investors aren't giving up on the historic neighborhood. Santa Monica investor Shaoul Levy is the latest to jump in, buying the Bamboo Plaza retail center for $5.4 million.

"I think that with the escalation of real estate prices, Chinatown is still one of the places that give you the prices of yesterday," said Levy, managing member of Levy & Co. "There's a lot of history there and activity, people coming for lunch."

Bamboo Plaza, located at 988 N. Hill St., was built in 1985 for about $15 million, with the Community Redevelopment Agency kicking in a portion of the funding to build a parking structure.

The center, which is the home of Empress Pavilion, one of L.A.'s most popular dim sum restaurants, has 60,000 square feet of retail space and three stories of parking. But it has an overall vacancy rate of 50 percent. Another anchor tenant, 99 Ranch Market, left the property because it couldn't afford the high monthly rent.

The family that originally developed Bamboo Plaza lost the property about three years ago when it was acquired by Cathay Bank and East West Bank through a deed in lieu of foreclosure. The banks then placed it on the market.

Levy was one of three competing investors trying to acquire the center. The banks originally asked $7 million but agreed to a reduction.

"There was a lot of interest in this property," said Michael B. Rubin with Delson/Norris Investment Properties, who represented both sides in the deal.

Levy said the property is in good shape and doesn't require any major renovations. The challenge is stepping up marketing to attract more tenants.

"It's still viable to put a market in there or an eating establishment that's not Chinese," said Levy, who owns office buildings, apartments and retail centers throughout California. "We have ample parking."

Levy is eyeing other purchases in Chinatown. And he's not the only one. Several other investors, including Manhattan Beach-based LaeRoc Partners and the owners of the San Antonio Winery, have bought Chinatown properties in recent months.

Another buy for Gilmore

Tom Gilmore is poised to make yet another addition to his growing portfolio of historic properties downtown.

This time, it's the Palace Theatre on Broadway, built in 1911. Gilmore expects to close the $3.75 million purchase from a family trust in the coming weeks.

The movie house is now used to show feature films, while 25,000 square feet of office space on the upper floors of the building stands empty.

Gilmore plans to rehabilitate the offices and then move his own headquarters there. He is also talking to a law firm and an Internet company about taking two other floors.

He intends to operate the theater as a live music venue, with an eye toward eventually master-leasing it to another operator. "Music venues and restaurants are what turn (downtowns) around," said Gilmore, manager of Gilmore Associates.

He recently purchased St. Vibiana's Cathedral and plans to turn it into an educational, cultural and housing complex. Meanwhile, he is transforming several old bank buildings at Fourth and Spring streets into 235 loft apartments.

In another downtown deal, he bought the El Dorado Hotel, which he plans to operate as a boutique hotel.

Pasadena purchase

Capital & Counties USA Inc. has acquired the historic Sanwa Bank Building in the heart of the Pasadena Playhouse District for an undisclosed sum.

The 100,000-square-foot building at 595 E. Colorado Blvd. was formerly owned by Sanwa Bank, which will continue to operate a branch there. A variety of other small- and medium-sized tenants are also housed there.

San Francisco-based Capital & Counties, which has a London-based parent, also owns the Pacific Financial Center in downtown L.A. and Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco.

"We'd been looking for properties to buy in Pasadena," said H. Turner Newton, president of the investment and development company. "The office market in Pasadena is reasonably balanced, and the city has good demographic and geographic fundamentals. We were also attracted to the Playhouse District because there's a considerable amount of city and neighborhood interest in improving the area."

The Italian Renaissance-style building was constructed in 1929 as the headquarters of First Trust and Savings Bank. It's now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The transaction was brokered by John Gordon of Aston Partners.

Action in Commerce

The staff of the city of Commerce redevelopment agency is preparing exclusive negotiating agreements for two major projects.

One is with Trammell Crow Co. to acquire and redevelop the Citadel factory outlet center. The other is with Lennar Partners for an entertainment center of about 500,000 square feet between the Citadel and Commerce Casino, said Brian Dowling, redevelopment agency project and housing manager.

A decade ago, Trammell Crow converted the former Uniroyal plant into the Citadel outlet center. While it once drew throngs of shoppers, it has since been hit by increased competition from other outlets and a drop in the number of Asian tourists who shop there. It's also considered small by today's standards, which is why the city is requiring the new owner to almost double the size of the mall (on a ground lease with the city).

The redevelopment agency still has to approve the agreements. "There have been no final decisions yet," Dowling said.