Though downtown Morgan Hill
’s Granada Theater’s days are apparently numbered, we’re hoping
something can be done to preserve the landmark’s exterior. Manou
Mobedshahi, who has a 20-year lease on the property, told a
sobering tale of the doomed Morgan Hill theater in our weekend
edition.
He said a theater in the downtown was a losing business venture with Cinelux theaters already meeting the demands for moviegoers in Morgan Hill and the city’s desire to build another movie theater in a new development on Cochrane Road. And he had the figures to back up his disturbing claim, citing studies that indicate theaters only profit from a few movies each year.
We agree, as do many other business owners, that a theater will never survive in the downtown’s struggling economy. If that weren’t true and there was enough local support in the community, the Granada never would have closed in the first place.
However, we can’t help but hope there is a compromise out there that will allow the Granada to become a successful business while preserving its historical facade.
The building itself greatly adds to the downtown’s identity and is immortalized in the popular painting Thomas Kinkade created of downtown Morgan Hill’s streetscape. It would truly be a shame to lose a building with such tremendous character to new development.
The real tragedy is that the city lost the opportunity to purchase the theater with Redevelopment Agency funds, and instead, built the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse next to the Community Cultural Center at East Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road. The building would have easily served the needs of a community playhouse and accomplish the goals of preserving the historic building while drawing residents to downtown merchants. Though it would have come at some expense, saving a historical structure important to the local community always outweighs building a new one in our minds.
Perhaps Mobedshahi, or the potential new owners of the building, can find a way to open a successful business in the now tattered remains of the Granada Theater without completely rebuilding it.
Obviously, a business owner wants a return on their investment and no one expects Mobedshahi to lose his shirt operating a theater the community would not support.
The city should offer RDA funding to Mobedshahi again, but without forcing him to operate the building as a theater. Let him open whatever business he thinks will succeed, with the only caveat coming in the form of preserving the building’s exterior appearance.
It may be the only way to save an important piece of Morgan Hill history.
