investigation
Elie Samaha and Steven Markoff to sell 7 acres of hillside with 600-year-old pagoda
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A company connected to movie producers Steven Markoff and Elie Samaha has listed a hilltop site containing the iconic Yamashiro restaurant in Hollywood.
Santa Monica-based Samaka has put the reproduction of the 110-year-old Japanese Renaissance-style palace at 1999 North Sycamore Avenue up for sale, Bloomberg reported.
While its owners are reportedly seeking $100 million for the 7. 3 acres, its agents at Avison Young said the historic assets “could reach bids of more than $100 million,” according to a press release. The value requested by the official was not disclosed.
Samaka is founded at the same time as a charity run by Markoff, according to state business records, which also list Samaha as a member or director. Samaka took control of the assets last year; There is no public record of a sale, according to city records.
The 20,400-square-foot dining venue next to the Magic Castle was last sold in 2016, when it was acquired through China’s JE Group for about $40 million. This is the first acquisition in the United States through a hotel operator known for renovating historic homes in Asia.
It was once owned by Thomas Glover, who purchased the assets for $150,000 in 1948. In 2007, his descendants registered it and the Magic Castle, but did not sell it. Nine years later, Glover’s family sold only the Yamashiro site.
Historic assets include the iconic restaurant, a reproduction of a palace near Kyoto, Japan, as well as a 600-year-old Japanese pagoda, the oldest construction in the state.
It also features an outdoor patio, Japanese garden, shrines and temples, which have starred in videos and television such as “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Kill Bill: Vol 1,” “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “I Spy. ” “
Yamashiro, a name meaning “mountain palace”, built in 1914 by Asian craftsmen for brothers Eugene and Adolph Bernheimer to expand their art collection. In the late 1920s, it housed the 400 Club, a must-visit spot for celebrities from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
A client of the assets rebranded as “Hollywood Mountain” could build up to 280,000 square feet of additional structures around the iconic restaurant, according to Avison Young, the property’s owner.
A diversity of potential uses, from a hotel to an art museum, a tank or private property, according to Peter Sherman, director of Avison Young.
He said the assets would likely not attract investors for a quick return on their cash due to high interest rates, the 5. 5 percent ULA removal tax, the historic prestige of the construction and the slow pace of construction approvals. assignments in the city.
“This is not a genuine commodity-type property,” Sherman told Bloomberg. “These assets attract other people who aren’t necessarily slaves to interest rates. “
Producer and entrepreneur Markoff, founder of A-Mark Financial, traded valuable coins and metals infrequently, according to his A-Mark Foundation. He produced “Alpha Dog,” “Next Day Air,” and “Stander. ” In 2011, he bought a stake in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Producer and businessman Samaha owned Celebrity Cleaners and the Roxbury nightclub on the Sunset Strip, and starred in films such as “Battlefield Earth,” “3,000 Miles to Graceland,” “Get Carter” and “Heist. “
—Dana Barthélemy