Town Investor Buys Los Gatos Cinema

A local investment company known as Threesisters Cinema, LLC., purchased the  June 8 for an undisclosed price, according to local realtor J.J. Taughinbaugh.

The purchase was made last week and was an expedited escrow closing, according to Taughinbaugh, a Los Gatos resident and a senior associate at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services.

"It's a local investor that has a big heart for Los Gatos. I'm very impressed with that individual," said Taughinbaugh, declining to identify the owner of the Limited Liability Corporation or the sale price of the property located at 41 No. Santa Cruz Ave., in downtown Los Gatos.

Taughinbaugh said he received six offers for the property, which is approximately 11,000 square feet and has a seating capacity of about 300 people, but it's zoned to house about 500. The property has upstairs space where one its owners lived at one time, he added.

"I was very happy with how things worked out and so were the sellers and the sellers' attorneys," he said, explaining that the theatre's previous owners, James and Carmel Cormack, were from Daly City and one of them, Carmel, died in January

Taughinbaugh said he believed the property's new owners want the theater to remain and will continue showing mainstream movies and not specialty films or consider art uses. 

Carmel Cormack is said to have purchased the theatre in the late '70s and rebuilt it. "She was a very unique individual and people that know her speak the world of her," Taughinbaugh said.

"There's been a lot of positive reaction to the sale," he noted. "People are relieved to see the theatre stay and the town [government] was very helpful in the process."

Taughinbaugh said he had engaged town officials early in the sale process to find out what the limitations were for the property. "It really made a difference in their willingness to work with individuals who were looking at it."

The property was on sale for $3.2 million and it's speculated it was sold for around $3 million.

"I just want to respect their wishes to remain private," he said when pressed to reveal the identity of the new theatre owners. "I'm not at liberty to reveal who they are."

Jack NyBlom, co-owner of Camera Cinemas, is one of two tenants leasing the property. NyBlom took over operation of the theater in 1993 and his lease expires early in 2012, Taughinbaugh said.

The other tenant is the , a jewelry store located on the south side of the theatre. 

It will be up to Threesisters Cinema, LLC. what will happen to both tenants, but Taughinbaugh said it's most likely Camera Cinemas will continue to operate there. He didn't rule out a property remodel making it a single cinema again.