Planned demolition of former porn theater riles up residents in La Puente

Star Theatre, famous for showing pornographic films from the 1970s to the 1990s, may be getting the boot.

The new owners of the dilapidated theater in La Puente filed site plans with city officials last month to demolish the structure and develop a 22-unit condominium building.

But Arteologists, a local nonprofit, hopes to convince the city and the building’s owner, Linda Young, to renovate the theater building and repurpose it into a venue for community events, the Pasadena Star-News reported.

Young purchased the building through the entity Star of La Puente in April 2016 for $1.12 million, property records show.

The company does not have a permit to demolish the building but it has submitted site plans, building elevations and other development documents to La Puente city officials for review, according to the Star-News.

The city’s planning commission and city council have not yet reviewed the plans for the new development, and the developer attached to the project is unclear.

The theater lost its adult entertainment permit in 2000 amid allegations of prostitution, lewd conduct and several health code violations. Its former owner renovated Star and reopened it as a family theater, but business was slow and it eventually closed.

A previous owner also had plans to develop condominiums on the site as part of a mixed-use project in the mid-2000s but those plans never panned out.

Young said the building would need extensive renovations to bring it up to code and there would be “no way we can keep it.” [PSN] — Subrina Hudson