@Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre
The Dolby Theatre, the Los Angeles venue that serves as the host for the annual Academy Awards ceremony, is being sold by its owner, California Public Employees’ Retirement System. JLL is marketing the live-performance theater, which is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, according to a Bloomberg report.
Formerly known as the Kodak Theatre, the Dolby Theatre was built in 2001. The property is reportedly expected to sell for less than what it cost to build it.
The Dolby Theatre sits along the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Ovation Hollywood shopping mall. Gaw Capital USA bought the property that’s attached to the Hollywood & Highland complex where the Dolby Theatre is located in 2019 for $325 million.
The investment firm purchased the property with DJM Capital Partners Inc., a San Jose private real estate equity and development firm that rehabilitates troubled properties. The seller was Los Angeles developer CIM Group.
At the time, the new owners were reportedly changing some retail outlets over to office space at the complex. The Dolby Theatre was not included in the transaction.
Besides the Oscar ceremony, the 3,400-seat theater, which has two parking lots, hosts numerous live events each year. The property has hosted the Latin Grammys, as well as episodes of the hit reality television competitions American Idol and America’s Got Talent, and a Cirque du Soleil show.
The Academy Awards is contracted to host its annual ceremony at the Dolby Theatre through 2028. The property has also secured a sponsorship from Dolby through 2032.
The Dolby Theatre is located along a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard that has long been a tourist destination in Los Angeles. The theater is notably close to two historic cinemas: Disney’s El Capitan Theatre and the TCL Chinese Theatre. Down the street, Netflix is se to reopen the historic Egyptian Theatre on Nov. 9.
Also nearby is the Pantages Theatre which opened in 1930. The Pantages is one of the Dolby Theatre’s largest competitors for live events.
That competition grew in recent years, as all of Hollywood’s live theaters experienced revenue difficulties during the pandemic, which shuttered entertainment venues nationwide. As theaters across the U.S. still struggled to reopen this past summer, shows were put into indefinite hiatus at various venues, including the Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles.
A study of live theater venues found that the 2021-2022 reopening season saw a 14% decline in the amount of seats sold compared with the 2018-2019 season, according to industry publication American Theatre.
“The difficulty the theater’s sale will have is that it’s in an environment that the rest of our commercial market finds itself: higher interest rates, higher [capitalization] rates and quality assets selling for less than replacement value,” said Bill Boyd, an executive vice president for Kidder Mathews. Boyd is also a veteran L.A. broker who has sold and leased real estate to entertainment tenants
The Dolby Theatre reopened in 2021 at a cost of $94 million after its temporary closure due to COVID-19. However, it could now trade for about $70 million.