Delijani Family Reveals Plans to Activate Their Four Historic Theaters in Downtown Los Angeles

Here is the opening to the Downtown News Article on the immediate plans of the Delijani family for its four historic Broadway theaters situated in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles.

Family Looks to Upgrade Four Broadway Theaters

by Richard Guzmán, City Editor | Posted: Friday, September 7, 2012 9:03 am

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - For years, the status of four Broadway theaters owned by the Delijani family has been one of the biggest trouble points for the revitalization of Broadway. Although many have envisioned a revived Palace, State, Los Angeles and Tower theaters functioning as mini-epicenters of nightlife, the family has been slow to act, worried about the cost, loading issues and a perceived lack of parking.

Now, all that could change. If the new plan comes to fruition, the family could have a major role in really bringing back Broadway.

What most people do not realize is that the Delijani family simply by buying the Los Angeles Theatre at the personal request of Mayor Thomas Bradley - 25 years ago - at a greatly inflated price to save it from being demolished - have gone out of pocket tens of millions of dollars by not converting it to retail, a restaurant or a nightclub by taking out all its seats. 

And while I can not go into details, keeping the LA Theater also cost them far more than even that when one takes into account what they needed to do with other properties during major recessions in order to be able to keep the LA Theater safe from developers.

And yet, even then, even after all those losses, since the family knew it would take an entire theater district to make these venues work in the long term, they continued to buy and preserve other historic theaters (first the State Theatre, then the Palace Theatre and then the Tower Theatre) - and lose money on them - until the time has finally come when their overall vision of a true theater district can be realized.

Unfortunately, it will likely take a future generation - once all the theaters are open and operating - to be able to appreciate the wisdom of their long term vision vision - much less begin to understand or appreciate, the immense costs they voluntarily shouldered by deciding to forgo making a quick buck and keeping these four theaters completely intact for all these years.