Embracing the passage of time and all elements that come with it, the City of Beverly Hills last week closed escrow on the Clock Drive-in Market building at 8423 Wilshire Blvd., paying $16.5 million. The property, which rests a stone’s throw from where the Wilshire/La Cienega subway station is slated to open in 2023, last changed hands in 2000, when Automotive Resource, LLC purchased the 8,500-square-foot building for $2.85 million.
Originally built in 1929 as a drive-in market with a large apartment (later turned office space) upstairs and a small standalone gas station at its southeast corner, the Spanish Colonial Revival style building, designed by C.W. Wilson and Sons, was listed on the Beverly Hills Register of Historic Properties in 2016. The L-shaped one-story and two-story building of brick and frame cost roughly $32,500 to build according to the original permit. The two- story portion is dominated by a monumental square shape clock tower, which gave the building its name.
