Hollywood's Iconic Amoeba Records Staying Open for "Several Years," Despite Highrise Plans

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Sep 13, 2016

Amoeba Records' Hollywood location is a great place to dive through the bins for rare vinyl treasures, but the lot may one day be known as a great place to take a dip in a rooftop pool. While the sale of the building isn't pushing the company out of the neighbourhood for years, there are plans to replace the record store with a highrise apartment building.

LAist caused concern this week after posting an article that included a suspect illustration from the online portfolio of architectural illustration firm Shimahara. The illustration places a large highrise with a rooftop pool over the same block of Sunset Boulevard on which Amoeba currently rests, between Ivar and Cahuenga. The store has been on this lot since 2001.

Time Out LA added that the current building was sold to developer GPI Companies in October of 2015 for $34 million USD. Amoeba confirmed the sale on their end, but also added in a tweet yesterday that the store has no plans of moving anytime soon. Though a specific date wasn't outlined, Amoeba's Hollywood location still has "several years" on its lease, and the current owners are open to the business "potentially staying longer."
 
That's good news for anyone looking to buy themselves a sweet score from the used bins, or perhaps something a bit pricier. In 2015, the store sold a test-pressing of Bob Dylan's landmark Blood On The Tracks album for $12,000 USD.

Amoeba, which bills itself as "the world's finest independent music store," opened its first location in Berkeley, CA in 1990, and then another one in San Francisco in 1997.
 

Latest Coverage