A downtown landmark was sold at auction Thursday to an investment firm owned by a San Francisco couple.
The 4th Avenue Theatre, a fond movie house memory to thousands of Anchorage residents who grew up here, was purchased by Peach Investments at a courthouse foreclosure sale for a total of about $1.65 million.
The investment firm is owned by Joe and Maria Fang, who announced plans nearly a decade ago to build a 20-story-plus tower combining offices, upscale condominiums and parking on a lot behind the theater and next door to Key Bank Plaza, which they also own.
A local spokesman for the firm Thursday declined to comment on what may happen to the old theater building now.
"We don't have any plans nor comments right now about this particular property," said Derrick Chang, an Anchorage representative for Peach and a related company, Ruby Investments. The latter firm built an innovative, architecturally striking 15-story office and retail building at Northern Lights Boulevard and C Street.
Acting Mayor Matt Claman said he doesn't know what the new owners plan for the 4th Avenue Theatre, but he thinks the sale may be a good sign. "I'm optimistic that now that it's out of foreclosure that some efforts toward preserving it and also figuring out ways to make it commercially viable can go forward," Claman said.
The downtown theater building is one of the most distinctive structures in Alaska, built in an art deco style by pioneer industrialist Austin "Cap" Lathrop in the 1940s to seat more than 1,000 people in grand surroundings, including a gold-leaf mural of Mount McKinley in the lobby and a twinkling array of ceiling lights fashioned in a Big Dipper display above the auditorium.
The building survived the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, but repeated public and private efforts to acquire and preserve the theater have been unsuccessful.
Businessman Robert Gottstein bought the building at an earlier foreclosure auction in 1991 and spent millions restoring it. But his efforts to make it a going concern and later to find buyers willing to preserve it failed.
Community groups also tried to raise money to buy the theater, and the Anchorage Assembly put a $2 million bond proposition before voters in 2006 in hopes of acquiring it. The bond was rejected.
Northrim Bank finally foreclosed.
"Boy, it's been a long process," said Paul Wellman, a senior vice president with the bank.
"I've postponed this foreclosure process trying to get somebody to take this property for a long time," he said.
The purchase price for the theater was $791,864. But acquiring the property also meant paying off a separate deed of trust and back taxes. All together, the total came to about $1.65 million, Wellman said.
Two of the old building's staunchest defenders were on hand Thursday morning for the auction. Sam Combs, a historic preservation architect, and retired home builder Les Sheppard are two of many people who have tried to raise money and find ways to keep the structure alive and intact. They said they are worried that new owners won't keep the theater as it is today.
"Robert (Gottstein) had a lot of love for that theater, but he just could not make it work out," Sheppard said. "And it's sad ... the people who used to enjoy it are the losers."
Gottstein did not return phone calls Thursday.
The theater is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but that apparently doesn't restrict what is done with the property, Sheppard said.
Contact reporter Don Hunter at dhunter@adn.com or 257-4349.
By DON HUNTER
dhunter@adn.com