Yesterday, Los Angeles news site LAist reported on the sale of Amoeba Music Hollywood, a sprawling location that employs 250.
The LA store opened in 2001 as the third and largest California branch, established after the San Francisco and Berkeley locations. It's long been a destination for record diggers, but it's also a Hollywood landmark, located within spitting distance of The Arclight Theatre and the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. The neighborhood has also been a hotbed for development as of late, and LAist obtained an image from the portfolio of the architectural illustration firm Shimahara depicting a proposed high-rise tower in place of the record store. The site then uncovered the sale of the building.
GPI Companies, a real estate group behind high-end malls like The Promenade, purchased the nearly 50,000 square-foot building for $34 million on October 28, 2015. They're presumably behind the Shimahara illustration, which was commissioned by the architecture firm Johnson Fain.
Amoeba Records sold the property voluntarily. The store is among the largest independent record shops in the world, operating within a market that has seen CD sales, one of the Hollywood location's primary profit engines, drop dramatically as well as high-profile releases, which led to necessary foot traffic, de–emphasize physical formats in favor of exclusive deals with streaming sites.
Though they initially declined to comment, Amoeba eventually posted a short, handwritten note to its Instagram. It says Y'all are asking questions about that article today… We're going to remain in our building for the duration of our lease—which is several years—and Amoeba and the building owner are open to us potentially staying longer. We are committed to staying in Hollywood and we appreciate all your concern and support!
(Full disclosure: Matt McDermott is a former Amoeba Music Hollywood employee.)