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California Theatre Deal Secures Preservation Agreement
By Ann Jarmusch
July/August 2019
 The vacant California Theatre, ca. 2009. Photo by Sandé Lollis |
Often, historic preservation's best friends are patience and perseverance.
Nearly everyone outside of SOHO and the preservation community, it seems, assumed the long-shuttered, deteriorating, California Theatre, at 4th Avenue and C Street, was doomed to demolition. Hailed as a "Cathedral of the Motion Picture" when it opened in 1927, the theater later attracted Baby Boomers to legendary rock concerts, having delivered fantasies on the silver screen to their parents and grandparents.
Since 2003, the Spanish Colonial Revival theater with office floors above it has appeared on SOHO's annual Most Endangered List nine times. Developer proposals came and went. Adding the Caliente Racetrack 1960s advertising sign, painted on a tall wall, to the endangered resource, it stayed on the MEL from 2012-2017. Demolition was approved, but halted in 2018, after SOHO won a legal challenge to a proposal that did not include an adaptive reuse alternative as required under the California Environmental Quality Act. But SOHO and the owner, Caydon Property Group recently reached an agreement. Happily, the California Theatre came off our endangered list and went into SOHO's "win" column. (The 2019 Most Endangered List will be announced in October.)
An approved 41-story condominium tower will rise from the soon-to-be restored theater lobby. Portions of the historic exterior, including ornament, will be preserved or reused. The Caliente mural, a popular emblem of San Diego and Tijuana's enduring ties, will be reproduced.
SOHO continues to work with Caydon Property Group, as they have for almost a year, to influence and monitor their design and construction decisions, techniques, and materials. It took nearly two decades, but this compromise is a testament to SOHO's patience and perseverance.
And a testament to our members and supporters who generously contributed to the California Theatre Legal Defense Fund and believed in our negotiating team. Thank you!
Read the San Diego Union-Tribune report on the approved project and the theatre's illustrious history.
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