Shorenstein Daughter Sells Curran Theatre to Giants

The San Francisco Giants’ latest real estate play isn’t at its Oracle Park-adjacent Mission Rock development, but a century-old theater in Union Square.

The Major League Baseball team bought the historic Curran Theatre at 445 Geary Street for an undisclosed amount, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, from theater producer Carole Shorenstein Hays, daughter of late real estate mogul Walter Shorenstein.

The change in ownership won’t affect programming at the 1922-built arts venue. BroadwaySF will continue to operate the Curran and its lineup of shows, including Broadway tours and celebrity appearances will not change.

In acquiring the Curran, the Giants are doubling down on their “core belief that sports, arts and culture are essential to San Francisco’s identity, economy and resurgence,” Larry Baer, Giants president and CEO, said of the sale. With the property, Baer said the Giants will be able to expand the team’s event production capabilities, as the limited MLB season has led Baer to turn down potential clients and promoters.

Shorenstein Hays, a Tony Award-winning theater producer, first began her Best of Broadway programming at the Curran in 1977. She became the owner of the venue in 2010 and oversaw a major renovation of the venue completed in 2017. “It was essential to me that [the Curran’s] next stewards would ensure it remains a vibrant home for artists and audiences alike,” she said, thanking the Giants for “stepp[ing] up to the plate.”

Baer said that Shorenstein Hays’ banker first floated a possible sale of the venue to the team two months ago. The Giants president had a longstanding relationship with Walter Shorenstein. “Our original conversations about buying the Giants were in his offices in 555 California Street,” he said of the investor search process to buy the team.

It isn’t the first time an MLB team has made a play for arts-related real estate. The Atlanta Braves own the Coca-Cola Roxy concert venue in Atlanta, and the Boston Red Sox own the MGM Music Hall at Fenway.

Over the years, the Curran has hosted several landmark theater productions, including the premiere of “Wicked” before it moved to Broadway and an engagement of August Wilson’s “Fences,” which earned Shorenstein Hays two Tony Awards for its original 1987 Broadway run featuring James Earl Jones and its 2010 revival starring Denzel Washington.

— Chris Malone Méndez