Cerrito Theater Won't Close, "Friends" Chair Predicts

Whether the City of El Cerrito sells or not, the historic theater isn’t likely to close, predicts Dave Weinstein, who launched the drive to resurrect it in 2002 and is chair and co-founder of .

His forecast Thursday came in response to City Manager Scott Hanin’s announcement to the City Council Monday that the city might be forced sell to the Art Deco theater, built in 1937, if the state’s plan to dissolve the state’s 400 redevelopment agencies is implemented.

The theater, shuttered and virtually forgotten after it closed in the '60s and was turned in to a furniture warehouse, has become a community landmark since it was restored and reopened in 2006 following an extraordinary citizens' fundraising and organizing campaign whose successful conclusion included the city redevelopment agency owning the building.

The redevelopment agency, whose board of directors also is the City Council, has sunk roughly $5.4 million into the theater. It spent $521,000 in 2002 to buy it and $4.78 million to renovate it, and another $100,000 for equipment in 2009 when leasee SpeakEasy Theater closed it and Rialto Cinemas reopened it, paying the city $4,000 per month.

“I don't believe this (threatened Redevelopment Agency closure) means the theater is going to close," Weinstein told Patch. “Number one, there's a lawsuit against the takeover, and a sound one.” 

The California Redevelopment Association and League of California Cities filed suit on behalf of redevelopment agencies this month declaring the dissolution action unconstitutional, based on Prop. 22, a constitutional amendment passed in November that bars the state from taking money from cities.

“Number two, it appears to be an ongoing profit-making operation with hit movies and good audiences. Say the city had to sell. That doesn't mean the theater would have to go dark. Why close when it's an ongoing, successful business?”

If the worst came to pass, closure “would be disastrous — not just for the theater but for that section of town. It’s coming to life in large part because of that theater,” Weinstein said.

At the same time, he said, “I’d hate to see the city lose it. Owning it provides more assurance that it would not close than a private party owning it. Friends of the Theater will do whatever is needed to make sure it’s an ongoing presence in El Cerrito.”

Representatives of lessee Pleasantown Motion Picture Company, Inc., which runs the theater as Rialto Cinema Cerrito, could not be reached immediately for comment.

California statute ABX1 26 calls for abolition of redevelopment agencies by Oct. 1 and their assets to be disposed of by a successor agency, presumably a city council, with the proceeds going to local taxing agencies affected by the redevelopment agency.

ABX1 27 creates an escape route each agency can choose to keep itself going: Pay a lump sum now and more every year to be distributed to the other taxing agencies. Cities need to opt in or out by Nov. 1.

El Cerrito’s share to keep its redevelopment agency in existence would be $1.5 million to $1.8 million this year and $400,00 to $500,000 in subsequent years, Hanin told the council. 

When the city redevelopment agency considered buying the gutted theater, which had been used by Keifer Furniture to store furniture and then sold by Harry Keifer to developer Fara Pakzad, the cost of renovation was put at $2 million. 

The rate of return to the city was projected to be $1 per square foot per month in lease payments from the theater operator, which would “cover most or all of cost of renovating,” the study advised.

The current fiscal status of the theater and reimbursement of the investment could not be ascertained at this time. Hanin and Economic Development Director Lori Trevino are on vacation.