The historic theater that screened movies on Newport Beach’s Balboa Island for more than 60 years before going dark in 1991 is set for a restoration after its purchase was announced Friday, Oct. 30
A local real estate investor plans to restore the Balboa Theater property to its former luster, making it a hub for entertainment and culture, the announcement said.
The theater opened in 1928 as the Ritz Theater, serving the community as a neighborhood movie house.
It later took a less wholesome turn and, in the 1970s, was an adult movie house, becoming well known for the accompanying police raids, according to Coastal Commercial’s announcement of the sale. Coastal Commercial represented the seller.
In its later years, the theater at 707 E. Balboa Blvd. became a place for alternative cinema and cult classics. It held midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” before shutting down in 1991. The city owned the building until 2017.
The recent real estate deal for the theater and its 5,200-square-foot lot includes a deed restriction that requires the property to preserve its connection to entertainment, culture and the performing arts. The purchase price was not disclosed.
“The buyer has a long history of restoring historic landmarks across California, and this family is the right one to take on the Balboa Theater,” Christian Emerson, commercial team lead at The Oppenheim Group, which represented the buyer, said in a statement. “Our goal is to bring it back to its former glory as a theater with an elevated restoration.”
Emerson said the buyer would be reaching out to the city in the future to discuss restoration.
“It is great to finally see the Balboa Theater enter a new chapter,” Nathan Holthouser, president of Coastal Commercial, said in a statement. “Historic theaters can be challenging properties to own and restore, and the people who take on these projects often do so because they have a genuine passion for making a meaningful contribution to their communities.”
Most recently, the restored Lido Theater reopened in 2014, also in Newport Beach.
Joseph McGinty Nichol, a Hollywood film producer and director professionally known as McG, and Fritz Duda, who owns the theater and surrounding Via Lido Plaza, shared a vision for the 1939-era Lido Theater as more than just a cool historic, single-screen movie place.
Sharing similar passions for its historical significance and its tie to the Golden Era of Hollywood, McG and Duda turned the space into a venue that also hosts live entertainment, charity fundraisers and lectures along with movie screenings.
Bernie Svalstad, president of the Newport Beach Historical Society, was excited to hear of the Balboa Theater’s sale on Friday.
“It would be great to get it going again,” he said of the building, which he described as in now disrepair.
He also added that the Newport Beach Historical Society museum will soon need a new home.
“Maybe we can be part of it,” he said. “We’d love that.”