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LOS ANGELES - The Bradbury Building  has been sold to Hong Kong real estate mogul Goodwin Gaw for a reported $6 million.
 
The building - built in 1893 and famous for its cinematic lobby that's been  featured in numerous films and television programs including Blade Runner and the Outer Limits - was purchased by the late developer Ira Yellin in 1989 and painstakingly restored to its former glory.
 
Sited at the corner of Broadway and 3rd Street in downtown Los Angeles, the Bradbury Building, with its open sky-lit atrium, gleaming yellow brick walls, cage elevators and striking, dark iron grillwork, is considered one of downtown LA's crown jewels.
 
Eric Bender, a vice president at Gaw's Downtown Properties Holdings, told the Los Angeles Downtown News that the firm is not planning new construction or renovation. "We think the building is a gem as it is," he said.
 
The building is about 90% occupied and talks are reportedly underway with a restaurant and nightclub about opening on the ground floor, which has more than 3,000 square feet.

According to the Downtown News, the structure was named for its owner, multi-millionaire Louis Bradbury, who envisioned it as a factory.
 
The building's design was inspired by Edward Bellamy's 1887 best-selling novel Looking Backwards, which imagined a utopian civilization in the year 2000 that contained a building bathed in light with soft-colored walls.
 
After viewing several sketches by renowned architect Sumner Hunt, Bradbury instead hired one of Hunt's inexperienced employees, George Wyman. The story goes that a frightened Wyman consulted a Ouija board, and decided to take on the project after his dead brother told him it would be a success.
 
Wyman earned high praise for his work, although Bradbury died before seeing the final product. The building was eventually converted into office space. It was the only major commission of Wyman's career.
 
The structure had deteriorated significantly by the time Yellin and a team of investors - the largest of which was Shamrock Holdings, the Roy E. Disney family's major investment firm - bought it. Yellin spent two years restoring the building.
 
The media-shy Gaw reportedly divides his time between Los Angeles and his family's native Hong Kong. Gaw's father ran a vast international operation that included various real estate holdings. After his father's unexpected death about two years ago, Gaw inherited the businesses, though he had been training for the job for years.

Downtown Properties' Bender stressed that the firm will be faithful to Yellin's vision for the structure. "We are very bullish on historic preservation," he told the paper.

The company, he said,  plans to continue allowing filming and student tours in the building, adding that the structure will also continue to house its Architecture and Design Museum, which opened last year on the ground floor.

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