A local real estate investment firm recently purchased the original Clifton’s Cafeteria building in downtown Los Angeles for $8.6 million.
CoStar News reports the Robhana Group made the deal with previous owner Andrew Meieran, who bought the property for $3.6 million in 2011 and conducted millions more in renovations.
Meieran said Clifton’s signed a long-term lease with the new owner and that the club would remain open. The decision to sell was directly related to the pandemic, Meieran said, as he struggled to land attractive financing to continue owning the building. Meanwhile, uneven revenue and trouble finding labor have challenged Clifton’s since it reopened in February.
Owning the building “was a bigger strain on the longevity of the business than securing something much more predictable,” Meieran said.
The Clifton’s property wasn’t formally marketed, and Meieran said he wanted to sell to Robhana Group, which owns other historic properties.
Meieran expanded the public access to Clifton’s from two to five levels of the building, much of which was converted into nightclubs and bars.
The original cafeteria, however, struggled financially and closed in 2018, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clifton’s opened in 1935 at 648 S. Broadway, near what was the original western terminus of Route 66 before the highway was extended to Santa Monica.
(Hat tip to Esotouric; image of Clifton’s Cafeteria by Michael Li via Flickr)