When the
“For Sale” sign appeared at the Granada Theater this week, heads
turned. A $2 million price tag turned heads even further.
When the “For Sale” sign appeared at the Granada Theater this week, heads turned. A $2 million price tag turned heads even further.
Whether the well-worn building is worth $2 million is a matter of opinion, said John Telfer, the Realtor handling the sale for owners Ed and Irene Enderson.
“The offers will tell,” Telfer said Thursday. “The market will indicate what the true value is.”
Ed Enderson said he decided to ask for $2 million because of the downtown building’s uniqueness and potential.
“I don’t want to give it away,” he said.
Telfer said he has received quite a few calls at his South County Realty office during the short time the theater has been up for sale.
“It’s very difficult to find buildings with a clear span – no columns,” Telfer said. “Because of that, a lot of people have shown an interest in using it for a theater, night club and dance or comedy club in a downtown setting.”
The Granada building also includes the space occupied by the Morgan Hill Tobacco Company. Owners Wyatt Miller and Gene Palermo have a lease through 2009. Miller, through an employee, said he had no comment now on the sale or whether he would consider buying the building.
The tobacco company has become a downtown destination for congenial cigar-lovers. Besides selling a range of cigars, the store provides humidors where customers can store their personal supplies, stop in for a smoke and take advantage of wine sales and pool tables.
Tobacco shop and movie theater have not always had an easy relationship. When the Granada was still open, movie goers complained that tobacco smoke wafted over the wall into the theaters.
The two-screen theater, built in 1952 and closed in 2003, is under a long-term lease with local businessman Manou Mobedshahi, with 29 years to go. He is negotiating a possible sublease with Mike Wilkinson of Colusa (near Chico), who hopes to renovate, revamp and reopen it as a multiple screen movie house showing classic and/or art films. He said a new ventilating system would eliminate the smoke problem.
Downtown backers claim the theater is the keystone to revitalizing downtown businesses, recently in the doldrums and in need of a new bright light.
Councilman Greg Sellers underlined this point at a recent council meeting.
“Nothing is more important than the Granada,” Sellers said about downtown’s future.
Mobedshahi, who Enderson said has the right of first refusal to buy, did not return phone calls seeking comment about any plans to purchase the building.
The City Council last week voted to move forward in negotiating with Wilkinson a loan/grant mix totaling $1,095,000.
Bill Newkirk, who is handling the city end of the project for the Redevelopment Agency, said the deal is not set.
“The $1 million has been earmarked for the project but there are still quite a few knots to be untied,” Newkirk said.
Wilkinson’s proposal includes a $700,000 loan at 3 percent payable in 15 years with interest payments starting three months after the theater opens; a $310,500 grant largely to preserve the building’s historic aspects and a $45,000 façade grant. The city has given façade grants to many local businesses to spruce up their store fronts in hopes of improving business and the general ambiance. The Morgan Hill Center on West Main Avenue is undergoing a complete exterior renovation, partially paid for with a tripple façade grant.
“It would be difficult for me to take over the full financial burden of the Granada,” Wilkinson said recently.
The old theater needs structural changes, to handle three proposed screens, plus new paint, seating, carpeting and rest rooms, to say nothing of sound and projection systems. Wilkinson isn’t expecting the city to pay for everything but he’d particularly like a deferred three-year loan on funds covering the historical aspects, uncovered recently and found on the original plans that the Endersons have loaned him.
What he has in mind for the Granada is three screens and a café with helpful staff and a few unannounced surprises.
“If all goes well, I’m hoping to open before next summer,” he said.
Wilkinson said he doesn’t intend to compete with mainstream first-run movies at Cinelux Theatres in Tennant Station.
“It will be mainly art and foreign films and a mixture of classics, maybe a midnight show,” he said. “The restored original stage can accommodate live comedy shows and musical events.”
Garrett Toy, director of Business Assistance and Housing Services, keeps tabs on proposals for Redevelopment Agency money for downtown projects, including Wilkinson’s plans to renovate the place.
Toy said he was surprised that the Endersons put the Granada up for sale.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Toy said. “They would have to do it at some point. If it sells, we will obviously evaluate that in context of what the proposal was and how this impacts that.”
Community activist and longtime resident, Janie Knopf, said that this should be a time for local residents to band together and buy the building themselves.
“This is something that should stay in town,” Knopf said.
The Endersons met at the original Granada Theater, just north of Rosy’s at the Beach, in 1948 when he was the projectionist and she worked the concession stand; they’ve been married for 53 years. Irene is 71 and Ed, 81. Enderson said his wife was reluctant to sell the theater but they decided that was the best course.
“We’re getting up in age and it’s getting to be too much,” Enderson said.
