Developer gets artsy with former 99 Cents store near LA’s Museum Row

It will take more than 99 cents to get anywhere near this deal.

Bolour Associates has acquired a prime half-acre retail site in L.A.’s Mid-Wilshire neighborhood that includes a shuttered 99-Cents Only store. The developer has a short-term plan of getting artsy and a long-term ambition for a residential project with a clutch of museums and a new subway stop on its doorstep. 

The locally based company paid around $6 million for adjacent lots at 601, 611 and 619 South Fairfax Avenue, Bisnow reported.

Bolour plans to renovate the old store as a gallery or showroom space as an interim step toward a 120-unit apartment complex. The goal is to capitalize on the proximity of Museum Row, a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the Peterson Automotive Museum, all within a block of the site at 6th Street and Fairfax Avenue. 

The location also stands to benefit from the Metro D Line station that will bring a subway stop to Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax, also within a block of the Bolour Associates site, with an anticipated opening next year.

“We are excited to transform these buildings to commercial uses that align with the area’s creative character,” Bolour CEO Mark Bolour said in a statement. “Longer term, the site provides equally promising opportunities for much-needed multifamily units.”

The 99 Cents Only chain recently shut down, vacating nearly 4 million square feet throughout Southern California. The retailer leased most of its space, but owned several sites, including the one at 6th and Fairfax.

Bolour acquired the site in a bankruptcy auction.