Action Figure Maker Buys US HQ

SAN FRANCISCO-The 35,000-sf former Northpoint Theatre here has changed hands for $5.1 million. The new owner is Shogakukan, Inc., the creator of numerous action figures including Pokemon. The seller was Luther Burbank Savings, which foreclosed on the property earlier this year.Mike Tobin of Pacific Union Commercial Brokerage represented Shogakukan in the acquisition. Tobin tells GlobeSt.com that the bank took back the property after the owner failed to make payments on a $10-million loan that was used to acquire and convert the building to an open-plan office building in 2000. “The original buyer converted the theater during the dot-com craze and put a dot-com in there that went toes up,” says Tobin. “He couldn’t make piece with the lender and had accepted an offer directly from us, but the lender wouldn’t do it, so we put an offer in with them.”Shogakukan is the largest publisher of magazines, books, comic books and videos in Japan with annual sales of over $4 billion. The former theater building will house US headquarters for Shogakukan’s American subsidiaries, ShoPro Entertainment and Viz. Viz is one of the five largest comic book publishers in the US and maintains a market share of almost 60% of the Japanese comic book market in the US. ShoPro, which was founded in 1999, is a production, merchandising and licensing company servicing the Americas and Europe. The companies will move in sometime during the third quarter, after tenant improvements are completed.