Business Conversions

Digital cinema took a major leap forward as five Hollywood studios pledged their support -- and their cash -- to a $1-billion plan to convert old-fashioned 35-mm film projectors to more modern technology in thousands of theaters throughout North America. A consortium of major theater chains announced the deal Wednesday, signaling an end to the protracted squabbling over who would pay to convert 20,000 screens to digital projection.

Plans to convert the First Interstate Bank into a restaurant/micro-brewery at the Laguna Hills Mall have been approved by the city Planning Department. Mall officials had objected to several conditions set by the city for the conversion, including the planting of 52 shade trees and the addition of 106 parking spaces. In a compromise, the city reduced the requirement to 44 trees and agreed to fewer new parking places. The Gordon Biersch Brewing Co. is expected to open the restaurant in October.

With cash-rich real estate investment trusts seemingly buying up everything that's nailed down, many private real estate companies forced to compete with REITs have had to ask themselves whether to join the crowd. REITs are so pronounced a force that the prestigious Urban Land Institute has invited Lincoln Property Co. President Preston Butcher to speak in April about why his San Francisco-based company will not convert to a REIT.

Kmart Corp. has big hopes for Big K, redesigned discount stores touted in splashy commercials by Rosie O'Donnell, Bob Hope and Big Bird. The retailer is betting that Big K stores--with their large grocery sections and broad, easy-to-navigate aisles--will turn occasional customers into regular shoppers. Kmart is trying to catch up to swifter competitors. Dayton Hudson's Target, which describes itself as an upscale discounter, is considered the smartest apparel merchandiser.

The first time Mary Ruth Erickson saw the ranch house that had once belonged to Susanna Bixby Bryant, it was boarded up and covered with graffiti. "Too bad," Erickson, a Yorba Linda Historical Society board member, said she recalls thinking. "If the place weren't in such terrible shape," she thought, "it would be the perfect home for the society's first museum." This week, after several years of rehabilitation, that is exactly what the once-abandoned home has become--a museum.

After a Hungarian restaurant went out of business on her street in 1994, food marketing specialist Patti Londre had an idea. Why not convert the building into a customized headquarters for her own company? She had been thinking of moving her five-person firm into a larger space.

Just as some people have multiple careers, some buildings lead multiple lives. A case in point is the 39 West building, at 39th Street and Western Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles, which started life in the 1920s as a bank and went on to become a popular diner in later decades. Several years ago, the diner closed and the building turned into a derelict.

The owners of Northridge Fashion Center have agreed to buy the mall's Broadway department store as part of a plan to convert the northwest end of the shopping center into an entertainment complex complete with a 20- to 24-screen movie theater and trendy restaurants. The concept, similar to the glitzy Irvine Entertainment Center at the Spectrum that opened last fall, follows the increasing trend of blending entertainment with retailing.

The owners of the Northridge Fashion Center have agreed to buy the mall's Broadway department store as part of a plan to convert the northwest end of the shopping center into an entertainment complex with a 20- to 24-screen theater, restaurants and possibly an interactive motion-simulator attraction. The concept, similar to the glitzy Irvine Entertainment Center at the Spectrum that opened last fall, follows the increasing trend of blending entertainment with retailing.

A $2.75-million federal grant will transform the site that once was home to the X-rated Pussycat Theater into the Madrid Theatre, a performing arts venue that will feature family entertainment, city officials announced Wednesday. City Councilwoman Laura Chick hailed the grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration as a step toward revitalizing the area's downtrodden business district--bruised by both the recession and the Northridge earthquake.