Celebrity-studded LLC pays $50M for Oscars venue Dolby Theatre

The Dolby Theatre, venue for the Oscars, has traded hands after a year on the market.

JEBS Hollywood Entertainment, a limited liability company headed by Hollywood producer Elie Samaha, bought the 3,400-seat theater at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, according to brokerage Avison Young.

The price was about $50 million, a source with knowledge of the transaction told TRD.

That’s a far cry from the $94 million it took to construct the David Rockwell-designed theater in 2001. It went on the market in October 2023 and was expected to sell for about $70 million, Bloomberg reported at the time.

The 180,000-square-foot property, which includes two adjacent parking lots, has hosted the Academy Awards for more than two decades.

The seller was the California Public Employees’ Retirement System  or CalPERS, a public pension fund.

On the buy side, Avison Young lists a rather eclectic group of investors convened to form JEBS Hollywood Entertainment. It includes former Sony Pictures President Jeff Sagansky, who was previously reported as a competitor to Samaha in negotiations to buy the Dolby Theatre. 

The list also features Sheikh Abdulla Bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, an entrepreneur and member of the United Arab Emirates’ Al Qasimi royal family; Sherwin Jarol, CEO of real estate investment firm SMB Bradley; Jonah Lazowski, son of LAZ Parking CEO Alan Lazowski; and Two Girls Holdings, a shell company registered in Delaware.  

Castellan Real Estate Partners provided JEBS a $27 million loan to finance the purchase, according to the source close to the deal. Terms of the loan were not disclosed. 

Slatt Capital’s Antonio Hachem, Cornelius Baliukonis and Wendy Wang arranged the financing and did not respond to requests for comment. 

Samaha, for his part, is no stranger to operating theaters. The “Boondock Saints” producer also owns Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and revealed his intention to buy the Dolby Theatre in July, setting a rumor mill in motion until Avison Young announced the deal this week.

Avison Young’s Christopher Bonbright, who arranged the deal for JEBS, described the company as “an ideal synergistic owner-operator” in a statement.

JLL’s Will Poulsen and Peter Hajimihalis represented CalPERS and its real estate manager, Canyon Partners, along with Muhlstein CRE’s Carl Muhlstein. A spokesperson for JLL did not respond to a request for comment and Muhlstein declined to comment.

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