Theater turns focus to fund-raising

June Casagrande

The Balboa Theater will not take over a portion of the Orange

Julius building on Main Street, it was announced Monday.

Negotiations to lease a portion of the building at 111 Main St. to

house the theater’s restrooms and rehearsal space broke down this

week. The theater will now revert to its original plan to build a

basement.

Theater planners looked to the Orange Julius building after their

plan to build a basement proved much more costly than expected.

Original estimates were $300,000. But because the basement would

be below the water table, planners learned that physical

reinforcements would be needed, bringing the cost to $1.8 million.

City officials offered to buy the building next door, which houses

the Orange Julius. The plan was to give a portion of the space to the

theater while leasing the remaining space to recoup the city’s

investment. But soon after the council’s decision, the building owner

took the property off the market.

The next option was to lease space in the building. The city took

an active role in trying to negotiate a lease agreement, even though

the city would not have paid for any of the lease. The building owner

and the theater were unable to agree to lease terms, City Manager

Homer Bludau said.

Mary Lonich, the theater’s executive director, said that though

this will cost the theater more money up front, it may be a benefit

for fund-raising.

“It’s not a financial setback,” Lonich said. “It does cost more

money in the short run to go down as opposed to go sideways, but

people make contributions and invest in projects to leave a legacy,

and if the building is owned, it’s a project. If you’re leasing it,

it’s harder for the contributor to see it as an opportunity to leave

a legacy.”

Now that the negotiations are over, Lonich said the theater will

focus all of its efforts on fund-raising. The strategy, she said,

will be to tap into a local network of influential philanthropists.

“It’s time to move forward,” she said. “There are people who are

very credible in the arts and philanthropy field and we need to get

those folks on our team. Then we’ll be very successful.”