New group vies for Hollywood CRA funds.

Entertainment museum still in line to get money

A competing proposal has emerged for $3.5 million in Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency money previously earmarked for the Hollywood Entertainment Museum that involves the restoration of four shuttered Hollywood Boulevard theater buildings for use as live community theaters.

Gary Blumsack, president of the Burbank Theatre Guild - a non-profit corporation that operates three live theaters in Hollywood already - has scheduled a meeting for Aug. 19 with CRA officials to discuss the proposal.

The plan calls for the Burbank Theatre Guild to join forces with Fox Theatricals, a Chicago firm that operates large theaters in the Midwest, to renovate the Pacific Theatres building (the original goal of the CRA loan agreement with the museum), plus the Fox, Vogue and Ritz theaters - all on Hollywood Boulevard.

The new non-profit partnership would then manage and operate live theaters at all four locations. Creative Artists Agency, which represents Blumsack (who is a screenwriter, actor and producer), may also become involved in the project.

"Our concept with the CRA is, 'You give us what you can for restoration, and we'll pull off the deal,'" said Blumsack, contacted last week on vacation in New York state. "We hope to bring theater to the people, to minorities - grassroots productions."

Second thoughts

Dan Garcia, chairman of the CRA Board of Commissioners, said he has serious reservations about loaning the $3.5 million to the entertainment museum now that it no longer plans to buy the Pacific Theatres building, but rather to lease space in the Galaxy shopping mall. Garcia met last week with museum President Phyllis Caskey and City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg about the project.

Caskey had an agreement to borrow $4 million from the CRA to help fund renovation of the Pacific Theatres building for use as a museum. She spent $500,000 on predevelopment expenses, such as architectural drawings, before admitting the Pacific Theatres' purchase negotiations were going nowhere and instead announcing her intention to lease the bottom floor of the Galaxy, which is now a food court with only two fast-food tenants.

"I'm a lot more concerned about boarded up buildings (than about the Galaxy)," said Garcia. "I can't loan money for tenant improvements at a fine building. Our mission is to cure blight. It's not blighted. What does the public get out of it? Paint?"

He added that he also has reservations about loaning money with no collateral and has asked the city attorney's office to investigate whether such a loan would even be allowed under the law.

Hollywood developer Jerry Schneiderman, who first tipped Blumsack off to the possible availability of CRA funds, said that under the Blumsack deal, the money would probably be loaned to the building owners to pay for the renovations, with the non-profit theater company committing to lease the space when the work was done.

Decision gets tough

Garcia said he hadn't seen Blumsack's proposal, but he added that "the more competition we have, the more difficult our decision will be."

David Simon, asset manager for Citicorp Real Estate Inc., which owns the Galaxy, said he is aware of the competing proposal for the CRA money and that even if the museum doesn't get the loan, Citicorp plans to go ahead with the lease, providing the bank is convinced the museum has the "financial wherewithal" to make the project work.

"We were aware of the CRA situation long before we got involved with them," said Simon. "I'm hopeful in a couple of weeks, the lease will be ready to be executed. As with any tenant, we know more about their finances than anybody. We're plowing forward."

Dick Carter, a real estate broker with Blatteis Realty, which is leasing the Galaxy for Citicorp, said once Caskey has a signed lease, it should be much easier for her to raise private contributions.