{"id":282240,"date":"2026-04-23T16:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282240\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:33:10","slug":"historic-east-bay-movie-theater-site-lands-buyer-from-beverly-hills-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282240\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic East Bay movie theater site lands buyer from Beverly Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"

BERKELEY \u2014 The California Theatre in Berkeley<\/a>, a historic movie house that has been closed for years, was purchased by a Los Angeles-area executive who wields an array of business interests in Southern California.<\/p>\n

An affiliate headed up by Tien Lung Chen, of Beverly Hills, paid $5 million through an all-cash deal to buy the theater at 2115 Kittredge St., documents filed on April 20 with the Alameda County Recorder\u2019s Office show.<\/p>\n

\"AStreet-level view of the shuttered California Theatre movie house at 2115 Kittredge in Berkeley, as seen in June 2024.\u00a0(Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

The California Theatre closed its doors in 2021 and its future has been unknown ever since.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Gilbane Development proposed the development of a housing tower on the site along with a transformation of the ground floor into a performing arts venue.<\/p>\n

The proposal would have preserved the theater\u2019s facade and potentially some of the interior sections.<\/p>\n

In 2025, however, Gilbane Development pulled out of the project<\/a>, an abrupt exit that effectively scuttled plans.<\/p>\n

Chen, a key figure in the affiliate that bought the property, is linked to the ownership group for Exotic Dreams Resort, official state business records show.<\/p>\n

Exotic Dreams Resort is a clothing-optional swingers hotel in Palm Springs, an upscale getaway destination in the Coachella Valley.<\/p>\n

In September 2025, a Chen-led group paid $11 million for a Pasadena property described as a potential development site, documents on file in Los Angeles County show.<\/p>\n

Alameda County and state government documents show that Chen receives correspondence, including property tax bills, at a Beverly Hills single-family home that is valued at $4.4 million. A Chen-led affiliate paid $4 million for that home in 2019.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear what plans Chen might have for the California Theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERKELEY \u2014 The California Theatre in Berkeley, a historic movie house that has been closed for years, was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,764,387,7,8,3010,1335,332,383,1011,1533,181,971,1399,100,143,145,144,388,5347,94685,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-282240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-alameda-county","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-berkeley","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-california-news","14":"tag-commercial-real-estate","15":"tag-development","16":"tag-east-bay","17":"tag-economy","18":"tag-housing","19":"tag-keywee","20":"tag-latest-headlines","21":"tag-lifestyle","22":"tag-movies","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-oakland","25":"tag-oakland-headlines","26":"tag-oakland-news","27":"tag-real-estate","28":"tag-retail-development","29":"tag-social-alert","30":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}