Will the Fairfax Theatre Ever Really Become Apartments?

Built in 1929-1930, the Fairfax Theatre is both culturally and architecturally significant. It wasn’t just a theatre. The building housed businesses at the ground floor and office spaces upstairs.

Unfortunately, the owner disagrees with its significance, and I’m told it was allowed to fall into disrepair years ago while the theatre was still open. There were rumblings of 71 market-rate apartments to be built above the theatre.

The Fairfax is a city landmark, but in Los Angeles, landmarking a building doesn’t actually prevent its destruction.

According to the Los Angeles Theatres blog:

The demo phase was completed in late 2023 with nothing remaining except the boxoffice, entrance terrazzo and doors, and facades along Beverly and Fairfax. The marquee was stripped down to the underlying concrete structure but the plan was to eventually restore it. The Fairfax was approved for City Historic-Cultural Monument status in 2021 but that only protects certain exterior features. The long-ago-approved residential/retail project seemed to be underway…

And then…crickets.

Since demolition of everything but the facade, there has been no activity at the Fairfax’s brutally gutted husk.

And now that brutally gutted husk is being marketed as a $45 million “development opportunity”. The listing does note that there are entitlements for market rate apartments or for a combination of hotel and residential units. It does not mention the extent of the gutting despite playing up the theatre’s historic, cultural, and architectural significance.

However, who knows what the hypothetical buyer will actually do with the site? The listing also suggests hospitality, luxury retail, or medical/office space as possible alternate uses.

There’s a promotional video for the listing. I’ve screenshotted the lone comment in case it gets deleted (see below):

In case anyone can’t read the comment, it says, in part, “Did you mention the part where the soon-to-be previous owner discovered part of a river runs under the property, rendering excavation for parking a near-impossibility?”

So…subterranean parking isn’t looking very likely.

Will the gutted Fairfax ever really get the proposed apartments? Only time will tell.

But I’m not holding my breath.

7901 Beverly Boulevard, Beverly Fairfax.