Apple store planned for historic theater on LA'S Broadway

LOS ANGELES — An upcoming Apple store in a historic downtown Los Angeles theater is expected to help bring the area back to life.

City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who launched the Bringing Back Broadway initiative, said Thursday the new Apple store will be in the 1920s-era Tower Theatre, one of the dozen early 20th century movie palaces in the Broadway Theater District.

"One of the top companies in the world coming downtown is really sending the message that downtown is the place to be and that it's back to life," Huizar said.

There was only one theater being used when officials first started the initiative 10 years ago. Tower Theatre marked the eighth revitalized movie palace after Apple announced its plan to refurbish and renovate it.

"This will certainly bring more people back to the street, and it will create some synergy with all the other retail and residential growth that we've seen in the area," Huizar said.

Apple told the Los Angeles Times the Tower Theatre will be in the upper echelon of what Apple does, and "it very much differs from the other Apple stores you see in LA."

Apple said it will maintain the structural historical integrity of the theater and turn the Tower into not only a retail outlet but a performance space, according to Huizar.

The company's upcoming arrival also marked a new phase of Broadway's development.

"Property owners are getting a bit more sophisticated in the choosing of their tenants." Huizar said. "There's going to be some neighbors to take advantage of the outpour of people walking down the street there."