Caruso Affiliated’s just owning this intersection of Glendale. Across the street from the Americana at Brand (which is a Caruso property), the company’s inked a deal to buy a nine-story, former Masonic temple, two nearby buildings, and the vacant lot behind the temple. The plan, company CEO Rick Caruso says, is to turn the whole thing into a mixed-use complex that will incorporate creative office spacewith room for retail and restaurants, reports the Glendale News Press.
The temple wrapped construction in 1928, and was rented out by six Masonic organizations in the decades that followed. A few of the lower floors were in use as headquarters for a local theater company (*A Noise Within) from 1991 to 2011, but overall, the building has been largely vacant over the years.
Even though Caruso’s been working on this purchase for five years, it’s still not technically over: the LA Business Journal writes that the deal will close toward the end of the year. No purchase price has been divulged. Caruso is also working in Beverly Grove to build a very high-end residential tower at 333 La Cienega, the counterpart to his 8500 Burton project.