Hermosa Beach About Town
Bijou building sold
The Bijou Theater building, a historic landmark in downtown Hermosa Beach, was sold last month to Newmark Knight Frank, a commercial real estate firm based in New York City, for $18 million. Newmark purchased the building — which occupies about 14,000 square feet and has about 25,000 square feet of occupancy space spread over the three-story structure — from Federal Realty Investment Trust, the firm said in an Aug. 9 statement. The building dates to 1923, and originally held the Metropolitan Theater, a cinema and vaudeville stage. It later became the Cove Theater and then the Bijou. The Bijou, the last theater to operate there, closed in the 1990s, and the city declared the building a historic structure in 1999. Its historic status means that the building’s occupants face limits on structural changes they can make. Coincidentally, the City Council at its Tuesday night meeting approved a remodel of a section of the rear of the building’s first floor, where the stage once stood. Per conditions approved by the council, all construction will be monitored by a consulting architectural historian.