LOS ANGELES (AP) — Grand Central Market, the historic food hub that just marked a century in downtown Los Angeles, has been sold to a local investor who said he doesn't plan any major changes, according to a report Wednesday.
New owner Adam Daneshgar, president of Beverly Hills' Langdon Street Capital, declined to say how much he paid. But Daneshgar told the Los Angeles Times he hopes to preserve the charms of the popular destination that draws 2 million annual visitors.
"We just want to safeguard this place," he said.
Locals and tourists alike flock to Grand Central Market — which celebrated its 100th anniversary last week — to choose a meal from dozens of food stalls or shop for produce, meat and spices.
The sale that closed Tuesday included the 12-story Million Dollar Theater tower next door — home to the first movie palace opened by entrepreneur Sid Grauman, who went on to create the famous Chinese and Egyptian theaters in Hollywood. The two buildings have a combined 400,000 square feet of space.
They had been owned since the mid-1980s by the Yellin Co., founded by the late Ira Yellin, an early pioneer of the downtown renaissance.
Yellin Co. President Adele Yellin, widow of Ira Yellin, declined to comment on the sale.
Daneshgar told the Times he would spend "several million" dollars on maintenance and what he called "surgical" improvements such as painting the walls, cleaning the dusty skylights and updating the lighting. He said he may add one or two more stalls to the 40 existing ones, which offer Thai dishes, deli sandwiches, burgers, pressed juice, artisan bread and craft beer.
"It's a unique marketplace where you don't just go to eat," Daneshgar said. "You go there because it is an experience and you want to do something different, to soak it all in."
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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/
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