San Fernando Valley cinema pegged for big-box makeover

A movie theater in the San Fernando Valley is getting the full Home Depot treatment.

Home Depot, the Atlanta-based home improvement retailer, has filed plans to turn a Regency Theaters in Granada Hills into one of its big-box stores, according to L.A. city planning documents.

The company is planning to demolish the existing theater at 16830 Devonshire Street and build a 136,000-square-foot store on the site.

Home Depot, through a limited liability company called Pasadena Tech Properties, bought the site for $37 million in October, property records show. Alan Fox, the head of San Fernando Valley-based ACF Property Management, sold the property.

Regency Theaters has been operating for more than 25 years and has locations across California, Arizona and Hawaii. The Granada Hills location is still open and operating, as of March 24.

The new Home Depot will be 108,560 square feet, plus a 28,415-square-foot garden center and 366 parking spaces and bike parking.

Unlike movie theaters, which suffered from pandemic-related closures, Home Depot saw a sales surge during the pandemic, as people at home looked to do-it-yourself projects and contractors saw an uptick in renovations.

The big-box retailer’s sales in the fourth quarter of 2021 reached $35.7 billion — a 10.7 percent increase year-on-year. For the whole year, sales increased 14.4 percent compared with 2020, reaching $151.2 billion.

Home Depot opened seven new stores in 2021, the company disclosed on an earnings call last month. Often, the company leases its properties, and is an attractive tenant for retail property owners.

A Home Depot in Orange County sold for $53 million last year, marking the largest retail deal in the county. New York-based Maxim Properties sold the 225,000-square-foot store to an affiliate of San Diego-based investor Sunbelt Investment Holdings.