SOUTH PASADENA >> A developer who has renovated about a dozen 19th-century buildings in downtown Los Angeles plans to revive the historic Rialto Theatre to its 1925 glamour starting as early as next month, he said.

Izek Shomof said he’s in talks with a couple potential tenants who want to transform one of the last single-screen movie houses in the Southland into restaurant and bar space that screens old movies in the background. How many of the 1,200 seats will remain once the revamp is complete depends on the new tenant, he said.

“We are planning to renovate the exterior as soon as possible — within a month or two — but for the interior, we are negotiating with the (possible) tenants,” said Shomof, board member of the Historic Core Business Improvement District. “I know (the residents will) enjoy looking at it better than what it is right now — within the next six months. Right now it’s an eyesore. It looks like it hasn’t seen a new coat of paint for the past 50 years or so.”

Built by theatre impresario C.L. Langley in 1925, the Rialto Theatre is in the National Register of Historic Places and tops the list of South Pasadena’s 53 cultural heritage monuments. Falling exterior stucco and fire code violations caused the building to be shuttered in March 2010.

NGKF Capital Markets, a commercial real estate advisory firm, closed the Rialto Theatre’s bidding process in July. Spokesman Matthew Dobson declined to disclose how much money was involved when Shomof closed escrow right before Christmas.

“Wells Fargo, on behalf of the Jebbia Family Trust, was sensitive to the building’s significance when selecting a buyer and wanted to ensure the asset would transfer to a group with a track record of renovating and owning national landmark assets,” Dobson said in a statement.

The Rialto Theatre has original 1925 murals depicting Moorish landscapes, which is very rare for a 90-year-old theater, said Escott Norton, director of Friends of the Rialto.

“The architecture is Moorish, Egyptian with some Spanish revival because of the time it was built,” he said. “What I like to call all theaters of this time period is Hollywood Style. It’s all about fantasy and creating something that is foreign, intriguing, romantic and mysterious.”

Shomof said he enjoys renovating historic buildings so he doesn’t see many obstacles aside from how long these projects take.

In December 2013, Shomof spent $29 million to acquire the Sears, Roebucks & Co. product distribution center in Boyle Heights, a 1920s nationally recognized historic place that is in entitlement discussions. Within the next three years, developers could finish converting the facility into a mixed-use development with 1,000 residential loft units, some office space and 100,000 square feet of retail, Shomof said.

The Rialto Theatre could be finished and reopened before the Sears Tower just because of the price and scope of the project, said Norton, who is also executive director of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation. Whereas the Sears Tower is 1.9 million square feet, the Rialto Theatre is 13,200 square feet.

“Depending on how much of a restoration he wants to do, he could do it in stages,” Norton said. “He could spend maybe a few million and open it. The important thing is to get people inside and loving it and continue restoration as time goes on. This is a model that has been used on historic theatres across the country.”

Shomof has focused his redevelopment in downtown Los Angeles. He turned four properties on the 600 block of South Spring Street from vacant office space into residential apartments with ground-floor retail. Now, Shomof is leading a group of investors to rejuvenate the King Edward Hotel and the Baltimore Hotel. His goal is to preserve historic artifacts, he said.

Norton said after 28 years of advocating for the Rialto Theatre, he’s very excited to be able to work with a new owner who seems to know his way around historic restorations.

“The Rialto is much more than just another movie theater,” Norton said. “Besides architecturally being very close to the original, it also is an icon for the city of South Pasadena.”

An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the Rialto Theatre as a national landmark when, in fact, it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.