Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe Sell Shared Duplex

Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe have sold their shared investment property, a duplex in Los Angeles, for $1.44 million, according to Trulia real estate blog.

On Jan. 17, seven years after their divorce, they unloaded the duplex they still owned together. They originally purchased the home in October 2005 for $1.17 million and then listed the property in December 2013 for $1.395 million.

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Witherspoon and Phillippe made a profit of $266,500 on the sale of their two-unit remodeled property. Witherspoon also recently sold her Ojai estate where she married her husband, CAA agent Jim Toth. Originally asking for $10 million on the house, she ended up selling for $4.98 million after lowering the asking price twice.

Likewise, Phillippe saw a loss on his Sunset Strip mansion of $1.175 million in March 2013.

Mary Lu Tuthill of Coldwell Banker Brentwood was Reese and Ryan's listing agent for this deal, and Lisa Mansfield of Sotheby's International Realty represented the buyer.

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Harrison Ford's Son Willard Lists Kim Sing Theatre for $4.5 Million

Willard Ford is selling the Kim Sing Theatre space that he has owned since 1999. Ford, the son of Harrison Ford, is one of the pioneers of downtown’s Chinatown renaissance and is listing  the 10,000-square-foot mixed-use space for $4.5 million.

The former vaudeville house and movie theater was built in 1926 and redesigned by Ford, working in conjunction with XTen Architects. Changes to the site including cutting out the middle of the building to make an internal courtyard, and creating a three-tiered floor where it once sloped for theater seating. The original cinema marquee is intact.

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Over the 15 years that has Ford occupied the building, he has used it as a residence, a furniture and fashion showroom, and an event space.

"We have done launch events for BMW, Nike as well as corporate events for the Grammys, Pepsi and Star Wars in this place. It's great for all of that," he says. Flagship, Ford's sales and marketing agency for design, apparel and brands, will most likely relocate to downtown's Fashion District, he adds.

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David Kean of Teles Properties holds the listing and says that the unique Chinatown property will most likely go to an owner/user. "This is the perfect place for someone in entertainment; either an actor who wants a downtown base or a musician who could have a full recording studio here."

A recent uptick in Chinatown development, including large-scale residential projects such as Forrest City Development's $95 million Blossom Plaza, will add 250 rental units and 20,000 square feet of retail and residential space.

"A myriad of new hip shops, galleries and restaurants are starting to make their mark on the Chinatown historic streetscape," says Kean. "The first domino has fallen; more construction and growth is certain to follow."

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SBE to Occupy Variety's Wilshire Blvd. Offices

SBE, founded by nightlife and hotel impresario Sam Nazarian, will lease the top two floors of 5900 Wilshire, reports the Los Angeles Times, leaving its current offices near Beverly Blvd. and Fairfax, and moving into the Variety space. The trade magazine’s sign, which was removed last November from the top of the building, will be replaced with an SBE sign by spring.

Nazarian and his 100 employees will be in good company in their new 30,000-square-foot digs: Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and Millennium Entertainment also have offices in the William J. Pereira-designed, 31-story building, which is located across the street from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (Pereira designed that original campus as well.)

SBE, which operates hotels, restaurants and nightclubs such as SLS, Katsuya and Hyde, is planning a second SLS hotel in Los Angeles in the Grand Ave. development on Bunker Hill.

Variety will relocate to Penske’s corporate headquarters in Westwood.

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