Hollywood Projects

[bobcat]

This is an unexpected announcement. With 368 performances per year there would be hardly any room for anything else besides the Oscars.

Cirque du Soleil Comes to the Heart of Hollywood With a Show About the History of the Movies



LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- CIRQUE DU SOLEIL and CIM GROUP
announced today that Cirque du Soleil will open a major new show at Kodak
Theatre, home of the Academy Awards(R), in 2010.

The $100 million production is the centerpiece of a 10-year agreement
between the two companies. A cast of 75 performing artists will present the
show in the 3,400-seat theatre 368 times a year, and while few details
about the production's content are available now, Cirque du Soleil founder
Guy Laliberte announced that it would focus on Hollywood's place in the
history of cinema.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071119/LAM069-a
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071119/LAM069-b)

"Hollywood movies are important in so many ways, artistically,
culturally and socially," Laliberte noted. "They don't just entertain, they
inform, inspire and move audiences all around the world. They've changed
the way we think and the way we live, and they've certainly had a positive
influence on Cirque du Soleil."

"We are thrilled to have found such a spectacular home in LA," added
Laliberte. "The city is at the forefront not only of film, but music,
architecture and art as well. This is also a kind of homecoming for us. Our
international career started right here when we brought a show called We
Reinvent the Circus to the LA Festival for opening night on September 3,
1987. At the time we were broke. We literally had no money to put gas in
our truck to go back home if we failed. We said, 'We live or die in LA.'
And when I saw movie stars -- household names -- actually standing in line
to buy tickets, I began to think maybe there was a possibility we might
live!"

Cirque's partner in the venture, as announced today is CIM Group, the
owner of Hollywood & Highland Center where Kodak Theatre is located.
"Cirque du Soleil is an internationally renowned performance company.
Bringing a permanent show to the Kodak Theatre is a tremendous attraction
for both residents and tourists," said Shaul Kuba, founder and principal,
CIM Group. "This commitment from Cirque du Soleil is another significant
milestone in the continuing rebirth of Hollywood as a flourishing community
with a vibrant daytime and nighttime population."

Since its debut in Los Angeles 20 years ago, Cirque du Soleil has
brought nine touring shows to the area. During this time, more than three
million people have attended the 1,360 performances.

"Hollywood is the home of the stars, and it's only fitting that Cirque
du Soleil would someday dwell at the home of the Academy Awards -- Kodak
Theatre," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "For 23 years, Cirque du
Soleil's trademark brand of imaginative entertainment has captivated
audiences around the world. Now, the circus is coming to our town and the
people of Los Angeles can't wait."

In 2002 Cirque du Soleil designed, produced and performed a special act
as part of the 74th Academy Awards(R). Cirque will share Kodak Theatre with
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the new show will step
aside to make room for the Academy Awards(R) each year.

"Cirque du Soleil's ten-year commitment reaffirms Hollywood standing as
the entertainment capital of the world. We're proud to welcome what is sure
to be a captivating show and we invite everyone to come experience our
exciting, revitalized Hollywood," said Los Angeles City Council President
Eric Garcetti, whose district includes Hollywood.

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL AT A GLANCE
From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque
du Soleil is now a major Quebec-based organization providing high-quality
artistic entertainment. The company has close to 4 000 employees from over
40 different countries, including 1 000 artists.

Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to close to 70 million
spectators in close 200 cities on five continents. In 2007, Cirque du
Soleil will present 15 shows simultaneously throughout the world. The
company has received such prestigious awards as the Emmy, Drama Desk,
Bambi, ACE, Gemeaux, Felix, and Rose d'Or de Montreux. Cirque du Soleil
International Headquarters are in Montreal, Canada. For more information
visit: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com

CIM GROUP AT A GLANCE
Founded in 1994, CIM Group is a full-service private equity real estate
investor. The company applies its multidisciplinary expertise in the areas
of investment and development, mezzanine financing, fund management,
commercial leasing and property management. CIM has successfully identified
and invested in some of the most vibrant transitional urban districts in
North America based on its integrated approach to investing that utilizes
its broad based in-house capabilities and deep market knowledge.

CIM specializes in high-density urban communities, bringing its
extensive real estate experience to a diverse array of asset categories
including mixed-use, office, retail, hotel, entertainment and multifamily.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, CIM maintains regional offices in San
Francisco and Bethesda, Maryland. CIM Group acquired the Hollywood &
Highland Center in February 2004. For more information visit:
http://www.cimgroup.com/

KODAK THEATRE AT A GLANCE
Kodak Theatre is the crown jewel of the Hollywood & Highland Center
retail, dining and entertainment complex located in the heart of historic
Hollywood. The 3,400 seat theatre opened in November 2001 and soon became
known to more than one billion people across the globe as the first
permanent home of the Academy Awards(R). Built at a cost of $94 million,
Kodak Theatre was designed by the internationally-renowned Rockwell Group
to be as glamorous as its onstage artists and celebrity guests, yet capable
of serving the enormous technical needs of a live worldwide television
broadcast on Oscar(R) night. The naming of Kodak Theatre, in a 20-year
marketing partnership with Eastman Kodak Co., was one of the most
significant non-sports corporate sponsorships in history. For more
information visit: http://www.kodaktheatre.com

A FEW CIRQUE DU SOLEIL STATISTICS
-- In 1984, 73 people worked for Cirque du Soleil. Today, the business has
close to 4,000 employees worldwide, including close to over 1,000
artists.
-- At the Montreal International Headquarters alone, there are close to
1,600 employees.
-- Cirque's employees and artists represent over 40 nationalities and
speak 25 different languages.
-- Since 1984, Cirque du Soleil's touring shows have made nearly 250 stops
in close 200 cities around the world.
-- Over 70 million spectators have seen a Cirque du Soleil show.
-- Close to 10 million people will have seen a Cirque du Soleil show in
2007.
-- In 2007, Cirque du Soleil is presenting 15 different shows around the
world.

[Quixote]

^ GREAT news!

[dktshb]

Cirque du Soleil Comes to the Heart of Hollywood

[want2beaqui]

Does anyone know what the use of the ( i call it the transformer building) building being "refaced and remodeled" is. I was driving down sunset at *cough* sunset and it just seems annoyingly open to the sun and the glass seems Super Clear. They have added what look like mini balconies also. So is this gonna be office or residential? I could just be way out of the loop but i have driven by that building so many times going "oh yeah ask someone on SSP"

[LosAngelesBeauty]

^ Residential developed by CIM Group.

[sopas ej]

Apparently, the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood was originally meant to be 12 stories high, with offices. I never knew this.

From the LA Times:

Decades later, 12-story-high plan for Pantages revived



By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
6:01 PM PST, December 5, 2007
In the late 1920s, Los Angeles theater mogul Alexander Pantages started work on a costly Art Deco playhouse that would be topped by a 12-story office tower overlooking the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine.

A massive steel and concrete foundation was laid, but the 1929 stock market crash halted construction at two stories. To this date, the Pantages Theatre, currently showing the long-running musical "Wicked," remains a two-story structure.

Now, 77 years after the Pantages' spectacular opening night, efforts to finish the landmark theater's upstairs offices are moving ahead once again -- with those long-forgotten 10 additional floors, all true to the original Art Deco design.

"How often do we get a chance to bring history back?" said Hollywood's City Council representative, Eric Garcetti. "This way we get to participate in the first Golden Age of Hollywood while it's heading into its second round."

Representatives of the Nederlander family, owners of the Pantages, and local officials are expected to announce Thursday that they plan to move forward on the project estimated to cost $75 million to $100 million and take as long as four years to complete.

Local historical preservationists at Hollywood Heritage Inc. are also on board, spokesman Robert Nudelman said.

"When people see the building, they say it looks funny, like someone walked away from the job one day and never finished it," Nudelman said. "This will make it better architecturally."

Developers said the still-unnamed project architect will work from blueprints drawn by Alexander Pantages' favorite architect, B. Marcus Priteca. He designed 22 theaters for Pantages across the nation. The Hollywood theater was the last and largest in Pantages' empire.

Alexander Pantages was in deep trouble in 1930 when his flagship theater debuted at the northwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Avenue. The Times reported that he listened to radio coverage of opening night from his hospital cot in the County Jail.

Pantages was in failing health and had been charged with the sexual assault of a 17-year-old actress named Eunice Pringle. She said Pantages attacked her in his downtown Los Angeles office after they discussed possible stage roles for her.

Pantages said he had been framed and pleaded innocent. The long court battles that followed were a media sensation. Pantages was convicted and sentenced to as much as 50 years, but he appealed and won a new trial. He was acquitted in late 1931.

The trials had been financially ruinous and Pantages sold his Hollywood landmark in 1932 to Fox West Coast Theaters. Howard Hughes acquired the Pantages under his RKO Theatre Circuit in the late 1940s and moved his personal offices to the building's second floor.

From 1949 to 1959, the Pantages was the site of the Academy Awards. It received a $10-million restoration and upgrade in 2000, and since then more than $1 billion worth of development is underway or planned around the junction of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.

Construction has been taking place on all sides of the intersection, and when it's all done, there will be about 2,500 new upscale condos and apartments along with a W Hotel and an array of shops and restaurants.

The completion of the theater's office tower "is something my father and I had been thinking about for many, many years," said James Nederlander Jr., whose family has owned the property for decades. "We always believed that Hollywood is a gem of Los Angeles and that good things come to those who wait."

The Nederlanders' partner in the planned addition is Clarett Group, a New York developer that will start work in January on Hollywood's largest mixed-use project, a retail and apartment complex with more than 1,000 units that will rise on parking lots by the Pantages.

A recent structural feasibility study showed that the theater building is still fit to support 10 more stories, said Frank Stephan, senior managing director of Clarett Group. The tower would rise over the Pantages' lobby and street-front retail, so the theater will continue to operate during construction, he said.

The new tower would be built to modern earthquake standards, he said. The developers would also be required to file an environmental impact report, which they said could delay construction as long as two years.

Construction is expected to take another two years, so the offices are unlikely to be ready before 2012.

Developers predicted offices in the building will be sought after and quickly filled. Only about 8% of Hollywood office space was vacant at the end of last quarter, but the market could change dramatically in the next four years.

There is risk in speculative development, Stephan said, but the builders believe the special nature of the building would attract tenants.

"Now is a good time to go forward because Hollywood needs Class A office space," he said. "We think entertainment companies will consider it a premier address."

Indeed, the Pantages "is as Hollywood as Hollywood gets," said Mitzi March Mogul, a Los Angeles historic preservation consultant and expert on Art Deco, a design style that flourished in the 1920s.

The prospect of seeing another Art Deco tower rise in Hollywood has Mogul and other preservationists a bit giddy.

"Let's face it, Art Deco is really the style that made Hollywood and in some ways Hollywood helped make Art Deco," Mogul said. "There is a symbiotic relationship between those two that is forever. You can't talk about one without the other."

roger.vincent@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...la-home-center

[SD_Phil]

^wow, that sounds like it could be really interesting! It sounds like it's all set to go too. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[tujunga]

Originally Posted by edluva

For me, the appeal of the macy's parade was in both the baloons in themselves, and the scale of manhattan as backdrop. It's probably the only parade that showcases a city in a flattering way. any Los Angeles parade is just lame. even the tournament of roses with its underwhelming suburban banality.

You're impressed with a bunch of half deflated balloons lumbering through the streets of New York over the Rose Parade? The Macy's parade has got to be the most overrated gathering ever because there is no room for imaginations with balloons, besides those balloons have been known to attack the parade watchers.

[Tanster]

IT should be interesting to see the Pantages rise ten more floors. Well thats probably going take awhile.. tho

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

Original quote:sopas ej
Apparently, the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood was originally meant to be 12 stories high, with offices. I never knew this.

I had never heard this before either. Makes me wonder how many others there are out there never completed, but we just assume they are.

I love this. That they are going to complete it with the original design, and it adds more density to the Blvd. This ones getting 3 bananas out of me.

[Steve2726]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

The developers would also be required to file an environmental impact report, which they said could delay construction as long as two years.

Construction is expected to take another two years, so the offices are unlikely to be ready before 2012.

Ugh, 2 years for an EIR. That gives all the Nimby's way to much time to complain about the traffic and potential displacement of homeless people.

[dktshb]

"Decades later, 12-story-high plan for Pantages revived"

Man Hollywood is just coming along nicely but just so frustratingly slow.

[WonderlandPark]

KCRW on the way home tonight said the Pantages was fully approved and would be done by 2010. Outstanding this will get done.

[solongfullerton]

This is great as long as they don't tarnish the image of the Pantages. I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with what happened to Soldier Field in Chicago, but they took a classic football stadium and renovated it keeping the original structure in tact and pretty much destroyed the reputation of the place. Very similar with what happened with the Times building. Lets hope thats not what happens to the Pantages.

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

The Pantages is a priceless gem that could never be duplicated today. I don’t believe the theater will be touched in the slightest. It was already renovated in 2000 and thankfully it was completed with much care. This new addition really is completing the building as it was originally intended. And while the intention may be to follow the original design exactly, I hope they don’t cheap out on materials, which I still don’t think will tarnish the reputation of the theatre.

Representatives of the Nederlander family, owners of the Pantages, and local officials are expected to announce Thursday that they plan to move forward on the project estimated to cost $75 million to $100 million and take as long as four years to complete.

Wonderland – I hope the KCRW report is more accurate than the article above which says it could take up to 4 year. (but that doesn’t mean it could be done in 2 or 3)

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by solongfullerton

This is great as long as they don't tarnish the image of the Pantages. I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with what happened to Soldier Field in Chicago, but they took a classic football stadium and renovated it keeping the original structure in tact and pretty much destroyed the reputation of the place. Very similar with what happened with the Times building. Lets hope thats not what happens to the Pantages.

Well they're going to go off the original blue print and since the Architect originally conceptualized the building as 12 Art Deco I don't think we need to worry. This is not so much an add-on, but finally finishing it.

[ksep]

it looks like as if madame tussauds in hollywood is moving forward. there is a construction fence around the site at hollywood and orange, next to the chinese theater.

[jlrobe]

Originally Posted by ksep

it looks like as if madame tussauds in hollywood is moving forward. there is a construction fence around the site at hollywood and orange, next to the chinese theater.

Well hopefully full site prep will come in the next 3 months. One thing that should speed the progress of this building is the fact that no parking is needed right?!? H&H doesnt realize full capacity.

Let's see what happens.

[BrandonJXN]

From Flickr, by lizriz

Hollywood's Sunset + Vine Just Glassing Right Up

By Dakota
December 31, 2007

Jolly green giant! Following our October visit to check out construction, Sunset + Vine, CIM's 63-unit apartment building (at least that was the figure initially) on the corner of Sunset and Vine is just shooting up. Still waiting word on how much these units will rent for.


From Flickr, by lizriz


From Flickr, by lizriz

It would be awesome if those lines on the windows were lights.

[DJM19]

Its possible. Are those railings on the side going to hold advertisements? Or is that just part of the scaffolding?