Next door to the Fonda Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, a former printing shop is about to make way for a swankier kind of real estate. The 16,800-square-foot site sold for $9.5 million to a Chinese company that plans to develop a boutique hotel.

The price, which translated to about $565 a square foot, marks a record for a land sale in Hollywood.

The buyer, Hollywood Culture and Investment Corp Inc., plans to begin work early next year, according to brokers Avison Young who represented the sellers.

“Hollywood is a highly desirable market for foreign investors and its brand name holds more weight abroad than at home,” said Avison Young broker John Tronson in a statement.

Thor Lee and Steve Tronson also assisted with the deal. The property last sold in 1997 to Kenneth and Julie Chan for $840,000.

Chinese investors showed interest in Hollywood last March, when Beijing-based hotel company JE Group bought a seven-acre parcel featuring the Yamashiro restaurant for $40 million. The company said it planned to upgrade the site and continue to run the Hollywood Hills Hotel and Apartments on the property.

While that site is tucked in the hills, the Hollywood Boulevard site sits amid the bustling Walk of Fame, two blocks from Hollywood and Vine and across the street from the Eastown mixed-use apartment building.