Quote:
Originally Posted by EPdesign
Was there ever a group interested in actually fixing it up? Like and actually developer or theater company, not just locals?
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Howa was interested and actually did do some minor restoration (Tiffany Skylight) but was running into rising costs and funding issues. It is what ultimately lead him to sell the theater to the City. He couldn't justify the costs to rebuild the theater and ultimately didn't be the one to ask for the theater to be demolished. He had hoped that the City could rebuild the theater but knew it may be a hard sell.
Even when the City was using the RDA to get developers to buy into the restoration in exchange for developing the front of the property, developers couldn't justify the expenses due to a lack of accessible parking. This is what ultimately doomed Howa and I think the Cities attempts to find an RDA partner to rebuild the theater.
No project on the eastern portion of the theater land could be successful with the theater in place. No programmer would support the theater without dedicated or nearby contracted parking guarantees. These items mean that the theater would need to rely on grants and public funds for the rebuild and grants + public funds to program, maintain, and staff the theater.
While many will feel that the city is losing history with the loss of the theater, we need to remember, the theater was lost roughly 50 years ago. We should be happy that anything is able to be saved and reused from the theater at all. At least, that is how I am looking at it. We are able to preserve and reuse portions of a lost theater. It's memories will remain in thanks to the sale of the theater to Hines via the digital preservation. These items will ensure that history is not lost and also to help push for the preservation of structures that are still able to be saved for reasonable costs, with or without public assistance.