Apple Cinemas Grabs Historic San Francisco Theater

East Coast-based movie theater chain Apple Cinemas is making the jump to San Francisco for its first West Coast outpost.

The Massachusetts-headquartered company — not to be confused with trillion-dollar electronics giant Apple — has signed a lease to take over 92,724 square feet at the Don Lee Building at 1000 Van Ness Avenue in the Tenderloin, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Exact terms of the lease were not disclosed.

AMC Theatres converted the building, built in 1921, into movie theaters and retail space in 1998. The massive movie chain left the landmark in 2019.

The theater was then occupied by South Korean theater chain CGV Cinemas, which took over the theater’s lease at the start of the pandemic and opened in September 2021. It closed by February 2023, in part due to its rent rising from $265,000 a month to $300,000 at the start of that year. To get out of the deal with the landlord, Ohio-based SITE Centers Corporation, CGV bought the building for $28 million and sold it for a fraction of the price to Lakeside Investment Company affiliate 1000 Van Ness LP.

Apple Cinemas will pay “less than a third” of what CGV paid in rent, James Kilpatrick, an investor in the partnership that owns the building, told the Chronicle.

“Landlords make a big mistake because they don’t want to drop rents and they think they’re losing something by reducing the rent, and my feeling is that it’s the opposite,” Kilpatrick said.

Apple Cinemas’ new home will boast 14 screens including some with IMAX and ScreenX capabilities and San Francisco’s first LED screen. Recliner seats, a restaurant and a bar are all planned down the line. It could open in as soon as 30 days to take advantage of the summer blockbuster season, as CGV purportedly left the place in good condition.

To boost occupancy at the site, the Lakeside affiliate has secured leases with the Emerald Lounge coffee shop, which is now open and occupies the former CGV box office on the ground floor, and the Grand Athletic Club, set to stretch 35,537 square feet across four floors when it opens this summer. Ike’s Love & Sandwiches and City Smoke House are also tenants in the building.

Meanwhile, two independent theater owners in San Francisco are looking for buyers. Frank Lee and Lida Lee run Lee Neighborhood Theatres, operator of the Presidio and Marina movie houses at 2340 Chestnut Street and 2149 Chestnut Street in the Marina District, respectively. As they stare down retirement, the couple is looking for someone to take over the theaters, including a recently approved restaurant and cafe at the Marina Theatre.

“Movie theaters are a different business now, especially for independents like us,” Frank Lee told the Chronicle.

Elsewhere in San Francisco, another century-old movie theater is about to get a new life thanks to a new owner. The Clay Theatre, located at 2261 Fillmore Street in Lower Pacific Heights, is headed for renovation and a grand reopening as soon as next year with venture capitalist and Greenoaks Capital founder Neil Mehta at the helm.

— Chris Malone Méndez