Save the Granada is asking the city to abandon its plan for a
new cinema on the corner of Monterey Road and Second Street in
favor of a multi-purpose development.
Save the Granada is asking the city to abandon its plan for a new cinema on the corner of Monterey Road and Second Street in favor of a multi-purpose development.
The movement is an exercise in futility that should be abandoned. The group – a vocal minority – spent months lobbying the city council at the 11th hour to prevent a developer from coming in and razing the decades-old building to construct the new multi-use development that will include retail, parking and residential spaces. Now, since that idea failed – the council approved an “exclusive negotiating agreement” with Barry Swenson Builder Wednesday to proceed with redevelopment on the two downtown sites – the group will try to get a measure on the ballot to save the old theater. And that’s a bad idea.
For one, the Save The Granada group’s plan appears unlikely to work. They want the city to spend $5 million in redevelopment agency funds and say they can fill the building with live shows for 300 days a year. But BSB says the revenue assumptions are unsupported.
“We have not been provided with any data to back up their income assumptions, and we haven’t found any evidence in our research (that supports revenue projections),” said Jessie Thielen, BSB’s senior development manager. Without a more assured revenue stream to support the Granada Theater’s operations, the builder is not willing to purchase the site as they plan to do under the council’s current plan to turn the block into a retail and residential development.
Second, the city already has a Community and Cultural Center and a playhouse – both located downtown.
Third, even if the city spent $5 million to renovate the decrepit building, it cannot pay for maintenance and upkeep, and according to Thielen, an analysis of similar theaters in California found that most require subsidies from local governments, private entities or fundraising to stay open, or they are operating at a deficit.
Finally, putting the measure on the ballot could delay the project and the redevelopment of downtown.
The “exclusive negotiating agreement provides for various extensions, one of those being if the measure qualifies for the ballot, City Manager Ed Tewes said.
So, if the group is able to gather 1,800 valid signatures by Aug. 4, BSB would essentially halt all work until after the Nov. 2 election.
It’s time to put away fanciful notions of renovating the old theater and build a new one for today’s children to make their memories.
