There’s been huge interest in buying the buildings that house the Somerville Theatre and Crystal Ballroom, the Arlington Capitol Theatre and a Davis Square apartment building, and eight potential owners toured within the first few days, said Carl Christie, the listing agent and an executive vice president at Hunneman Real Estate.
The listings, reported July 10, have brought interest from a range of buyers that Christie said includes “actor groups” and one local “older gentleman who always said to his wife, if the Somerville Theatre ever came up for sale, he’d want to buy it.”
The three-building portfolio for sale includes 49-55 Davis Square in Somerville, home of the Somerville Theatre, the Mr. Crepe restaurant and offices; 202-218 Massachusetts Ave. in Arlington, home to the cinema and a half-dozen retail shops and restaurants, including an Otto Pizza and the Quebrada Baking Co. and 18 homes between the second and third stories; and 36 College Ave., which has a garden-level retail space – now a beauty salon – in addition to five stories of apartments.
The apartment building is listed at $16 million, and the other buildings at $12 million each, for a potential $40 million package. The seller will consider any permutation of deal, for the right buyers, Christie said Wednesday in a call. “He understands that if he is flexible, the chances of getting this done in a timely manner are great.”
Christie couldn’t get into specifics, but said that local “older gentleman” is already in the due diligence phase of a purchase.
The process of showing the properties to potential buyers “could be stopped with the right offers, but we’re early on in the process. People are still hearing about this and making contact,” Christie said. He estimated a sale announcement would take at least 30 days. “An owner wants to make sure that everybody that is interested gets a chance it, so the offers can be collected.”
Keeping the screens lit
CSB Theatres, the group that owns and programs the Somerville and Arlington cinemas, is in year two of a five-year lease and has an option to renew. “We have multiyear leases at both theaters and will continue to do what we have been doing since last year – keeping these neighborhood theaters an important part of their respective communities,” said Ian Judge, one of the CSB team, in a July 10 email.
Owner Richard Fraiman is selling family property as he retires. Christie, who said he has worked with the family over the past 15 years, called Fraiman’s interest threefold: “Certainly price is important. Certainly terms are important, and certainly the character of the purchaser is important.” He wants owners who will take care of the properties – and both theater buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.
There are no formal deeds, obligations or encumbrances beyond that five to 10 years of cinema operation, Christie said, but “the people that have looked thus far are investors who love the buildings and the tenants. Our general sense is people aren’t looking to make massive changes, like gut the theaters and turn them into somehow apartments or something.”
Most of the tours have been with “regional” business interests, but the offering memorandum went out far and wide, starting with a database built up by Christie and partner Dan McGee over more than 20 years. (“We’ve been collecting contact information of buyers since fax machines,” Christie said in a call.)
“Actor groups” but no names
Some prominent theater owners have brochures in hand for the properties, and there have been signs of interest from “actor groups” who collect and preserve arts buildings – most in L.A., but one in Boston – that are clearly exciting to Christie, though there was no request for tour from them as Wednesday.
“Sounds enchanting, right? I don’t know that that would happen, and it sounds like a bit of a long shot, but who knows, right? I mean, that’d be totally cool if some group like that bought it, because then you’d know it would it would never change from its current use,” he said.
Director Quentin Tarantino owns two Los Angeles movie theaters as of last year. Indie filmmaker Kevin Smith was part of a group that bought a cinema in his native New Jersey in 2022. Formerly the Atlantic Moviehouse, it’s been renamed to fit into the branding of Smith’s “View Askewniverse” and is now Smodcastle Cinemas.
But … was Christie talking about Cambridge’s Matt Damon and Ben Affleck? (Brother Casey Affleck talked in 2013 about reopening the AMC Loews Harvard Square 5 in Harvard Square, which closed the previous year. Owned by billionaire Gerald Chan since 2015, it has never reopened.)
“I haven’t heard names,” Christie said. “It’s just ‘actor groups.’ But that’d make sense, certainly, because they’re from Boston.”
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