Film producers list historic Yamashiro restaurant site in Hollywood

A limited liability company tied to movie producers Steven Markoff and Elie Samaha has listed a hilltop perch containing the landmark Yamashiro restaurant in Hollywood.

Samaka, based in Santa Monica, has put the 110-year-old Japanese Revival palace replica up for sale at 1999 North Sycamore Avenue, Bloomberg reported.

While its owners reportedly seek $100 million for the 7.3-acre spread, its brokers at Avison Young said the historic property “could yield offers over $100 million,” according to a news release. An official asking price was not disclosed.

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Samaka is based at the same address of a charitable foundation run by Markoff, according to state business records, which also named Samaha as a member or manager. Samaka took control of the property last year, though there’s no public record of a sale, according to city records.

The 20,400-square-foot restaurant next to the Magic Castle last traded in 2016, when it was purchased by China-based JE Group for nearly $40 million. It was the first U.S. purchase by the hotel operator known for refurbishing historic properties in Asia.

It was once owned by Thomas Glover, who bought the property for $150,000 in 1948. In 2007, his descendants listed it and the Magic Castle, but they didn’t sell. Nine years later, the Glover family sold just the Yamashiro site.

The historic property includes the landmark restaurant, a replica of a palace near Kyoto, Japan, plus a 600-year-old Japanese pagoda, the oldest building in the state.

It also has an open-air courtyard, Japanese garden, shrines and temples, which starred in such films and TV shows as “Memoirs of a Geisha”, “Kill Bill: Vol 1,” “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “I Spy.”

Yamashiro, a name that means “mountain palace,” was built in 1914 by Asian artisans for the brothers Eugene and Adolph Bernheimer to house their art collection. In the late 1920s, it hosted the 400 Club, a hotspot for A-list celebrities from the Golden Age of Hollywood. 

A buyer of the property renamed “Hollywood Mountain” could build up to 280,000 square feet of additional structures around the landmark restaurant, according to Avison Young, which holds the listing.

Potential uses range from a boutique resort to an art museum, think tank or personal estate, according to Peter Sherman, a principal with Avison Young.

He said the property won’t likely draw investors seeking a quick return on their money because of high interest rates, a 5.5 percent Measure ULA transfer tax, the building’s landmark status and the city’s slow project approvals.

“It’s not a commodity type of real estate,” Sherman told Bloomberg. “Who this property appeals to are probably folks that aren’t necessarily slaves to interest rates.”

Producer and businessman Markoff, founder of A-Mark Financial, originally traded in rare coins and precious metals, according to his A-Mark Foundation. He produced “Alpha Dog,” “Next Day Air” and “Stander.” In 2011, he bought a stake in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Producer and businessman Samaha had owned Celebrity Cleaners and the Roxbury nightclub on the Sunset Strip, and was behind such films as “Battlefield Earth,” “3,000 Miles to Graceland,” “Get Carter” and “Heist.”

— Dana Bartholomew

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