Land for Sale Near Famed Hollywood Sign

Los Angeles Officials Denounce Plan to Sell Acreage Near Landmark for $22 Million

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 14 -- For sale: a piece of Hollywood history.

The mountaintop backdrop to the Hollywood sign, known as Cahuenga Peak, hit the real estate market this week. The owner, a Chicago-based investment firm, is selling the 138-acre property for $22 million.

The news roiled Los Angeles city officials, who for several years have raised money to buy the property -- just behind and to the left of the Hollywood sign -- and adjoin it with the parkland on which the sign sits.

City officials say housing developments would besmirch the legendary landscape, considered the international face of the entertainment industry and Southern California.

"If homes were built on this mountain, there would be no close-up. It would be obscene," said Los Angeles City Council member Tom LaBonge.

The land's owner, Fox River Land Co., said it offered to sell years ago to the city, but officials came up short on cash. "We've moved on from them years ago," general partner Keith Dickson said.

Advertisements for the "sweetheart property," as it is being dubbed by real estate agents, boast 360-degree vistas, from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean, Catalina Island and the San Fernando Valley. Interest is high.

"The phone's ringing," said Sarah Blanchard of Teles Properties, the Beverly Hills real estate agency listing the property.

The epic sign is designated as a historic monument, but the steep 1,821-foot ridge adjacent to it is not. Residents often believe the lush land is part of Griffith Park, where the sign rests. But Fox River purchased the property in 2002 for $1.675 million from billionaire Howard Hughes's estate.

Since its creation in 1923, as an advertisement for Los Angeles Times Publisher Harry Chandler's "Hollywoodland" development, the sign has endured several hardships: rust, tumbling letters, arsonists and pranksters, who altered the sign to "Hollyweed" and "Holywood."

But a potential buyer, though not able to alter the five-story-high letters, could transform the pristine stage above it. Zoned for five residential homes, the tract could hold one large mansion, a handful of smaller ones or nothing at all if the land is preserved or returned to the city.

Two months ago, a city-commissioned appraisal deemed the property worth $6 million, just a million more than the city has raised, LaBonge said. He called the firm's price "like Hollywood, sometimes out of line." Dickson said the property merits more than a typical real estate sticker.

LaBonge said the hillside may prove too steep to build a on, but Blanchard said in an area where many homes virtually hang off the side of hillsides, that is not likely.

"Nothing's impossible in Los Angeles."