Billionaire L.A. investor Marc Nathanson is building a mixed-use project in Glendale called L Lofts in partnership with Greg Laemmle, president of art-house movie chain Laemmle Theaters.

And though they got to know each other through the deal, they discovered during the planning process that it’s not the first time the two well-known showbiz families have done business together.

Laemmle has always been aware of his family’s storied Hollywood history. The theater chain was established in 1938 by Kurt and Max Laemmle, nephews of Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle. Greg, 51, owns and operates the theaters with his father, Robert Laemmle, 81, who is Max’s son.

Nathanson, 71, chairman of his own family business, Beverly Hills venture capital firm Mapleton Investments, became one of the city’s richest people by selling his Falcon Cable TV company to Paul Allen’s Charter Communications for $3.6 billion in cash and stock in 1999.

Their companies have been working on the loft project for more than five years, after the city of Glendale’s approach to Mapleton about developing the site at the intersection of Wilson and Maryland avenues.

“Glendale was very clear that they wanted the L Lofts to have an art-movie theater,” Nathanson said in an email. “They had prescreened art-house operators and chose Laemmle.”

The “L” in the project name stands for Laemmle.

After doing some research, Nathanson arrived at a Glendale City Council meeting five years ago waving an article in an industry trade paper from the 1930s that detailed business dealings between his entrepreneurial great uncle, Nathan Louis Nathanson, founder of theater chain Famous Players Canadian Corp., and Carl Laemmle, then an independent movie distributor. The pair had clashed over the distribution of Universal films in Canada, but eventually worked out a deal.

“This was an ultimate coincidence,” Nathanson said. “Here is an apartment building being built in Glendale (by) these two old movie families.”

Nathan Nathanson died before Marc was born, though Marc did have a relationship with Nathan’s brother Henry, who regaled him with old stories about Hollywood stars coming to the Great White North.

“He told me about Clark Gable coming to Canada to premiere ‘Gone With the Wind,’” Nathanson reminisced.

The investor has built a collection of books and articles about the complicated history of Famous Players, with significant pages neatly marked with yellow Post-it Notes. While Greg Laemmle is not as devoted a historian, he finds the connection between the two families a lot of fun.

“Those kinds of things are not common knowledge for us,” Laemmle said of his ancestor Carl’s business dealings.

Co-production

The approximately $22 million structure, set to open later this year, will comprise 42 apartment units, a Panda Inn from Rosemead’s Panda Restaurant Group Inc., and a five-screen theater on the ground floor. L.A.-based Laemmle Theaters will own and operate the venue and own a 30 percent stake in the apartments. Project manager Mapleton Properties will own 60 percent with the remaining 10 percent going to Beverly Hills-based RDS Investments and Development. Rents at the complex will start at $1,925 a month for studio apartments, $2,000 for one-bedroom units, and $2,750 for two bedrooms.

The Panda restaurant will replace one that was razed to make way for the new structure, built on its former space and an adjacent parking lot, said Glendale Mayor Paula Devine.

Both Laemmle and Nathanson said the movie theater would make the complex a good fit for Glendale’s burgeoning arts district, anchored by the historic Alex Theatre on Brand Boulevard.

“Glendale on the whole is going through a renaissance, and the arts and entertainment district is part of it,” Devine said.

She also pointed to the Anteus Theatre Co.’s recent move from North Hollywood to Glendale’s arts district as well as an ongoing $15 million renovation of Glendale Central Library, as other examples.

William R. Boyd, a senior managing director at Charles Dunn Co. Inc.’s Glendale office, sounded a more skeptical note about the prospects for the complex in an area that has added about 4,000 housing units over the past several years. He also questioned the need for a new movie house in a neighborhood that has seen recent theater closings, including MGN Five Star Cinema.

“I’m a little bit of a curmudgeon, from a real estate standpoint, that mixed use has a greater propensity for success,” he said.

However, Boyd did note that he’s pulling for the complex to do well.

“We are hoping that the market is deep enough to help it survive,” he said.