Tourism: Convention Center Corp. to Run
Theater on Completion
With last week’s approval by the San Diego City Council, the stage is set for fund-raising efforts to renovate and reopen the Balboa Theatre in Downtown.
The five-story building, which has close to 1,400 seats and is at Fourth Avenue and E Street, is expected to open in the summer or fall of 2003.
Its renovation comes with a $15.9 million price tag for developers Kent Trimble, a local businessman, and Darien Corp., a subsidiary of local arts coalition Balboa Theatre Arts and Education Fund, Inc. The two are working together as nonprofit Balboa Theatre, LLC.
When the theater is up and running, Trimble will own 51 percent of it, he said. When the books are reconciled each year, the city will collect 26 percent of its excess revenue, while Balboa Theatre LLC splits the remaining 74 percent, he said.
Once the facility is rehabilitated, it will be booked, marketed and managed by the San Diego Convention Center Corp.
The proposal to the city from Balboa Theatre, LLC outlines that the theater will be used by local nonprofit arts groups 120 days of the year, through the Balboa Theatre Arts & Education Fund.
The rest of the year, it can be booked for theatrical productions, concerts, lectures and films, and the Convention Center can use the site as another venue for events and functions.
The theater, which first opened in 1924, has been closed since the mid-’80s.
The city’s redevelopment arm, Centre City Development Corp., bought the property for $2.3 million in 1985 during condemnation proceedings. Since then, many attempts have been made to restore the building, according to the Convention Center.
Balboa Theatre Arts & Education Fund became involved several years ago, with a previous developer. Trimble came aboard two years ago.
City Contributes Financially
Last week, the city, as its own redevelopment agency, entered into an agreement with Balboa Theatre, LLC.
The city gave $1.6 million in funding toward the renovation through CCDC. The city gave an additional $1.2 million for a seismic retrofit and $500,000 in federal funds.
According to Bill Bailey, treasurer of Balboa Theatre Arts & Education Fund, Chevron TCI made an upfront contribution of $2.4 million and Rancho Santa Fe National Bank is giving the project a $5 million construction loan.
As part of a tax enhancement program, Chevron has committed to backing Balboa Theatre, LLC throughout various funding deadlines imposed by the city, Bailey said.
On behalf of Balboa Theatre, LLC, Balboa Theatre Arts & Education Fund has launched a $4.6 million capital campaign.
According to Bailey, the city’s deadlines require Balboa Theatre, LLC to meet four fund-raising milestones in order to have different funds or parts of the project released to the group.
The first goal is raising $500,000 by May 15, at which time CCDC will release funds for the design of the theater’s seismic retrofit.
Subsequent goals are another $500,000 in six months, and $1.6 million in a year, when the title to the land will officially be transferred to Balboa Theatre, LLC.
The final deadline is another $2 million by the time the theater opens in 2003, Bailey said.
Balboa Theatre, LLC hired local fund-raising consultant Cliff Underwood & Associates to run the campaign.
Tight Deadlines
According to Priscilla Hall, who works with Underwood’s company, the schedule is unusual for a project such as this. The nonprofit group tends to have more time to generate money before a project’s capital campaign is announced.
With the deadlines set by the city, there wasn’t much time to do that for the Balboa Theatre, which was presented in a press tour March 28, the day after the City Council approved the project.
“It’s an interesting challenge, but we are confident that when all of the pieces are put together, the project will be completed,” Hall said.
Backers are expecting to raise money through various sponsorships, such as the auditorium, the stage, the patron’s lounge, the hall, and each of the theater’s 1,367 seats.
The least expensive seat, at the back of the theater’s second level, costs $1,000.
The largest sponsorship is naming rights to the entire theater, which is priced at $5 million. The money it generates will not be put into the capital campaign, but into the theater’s endowment fund, Bailey said.
Where donations from other sponsorships will be put , capital or endowment funds , will be decided at the donor’s discretion, he said.
Earlier this year, Underwood’s firm created an outline of theater project and various donor and sponsor options, in a booklet called a “case.” The company also compiled a list of potential donors from the theater’s steering committee.
The committee, made up of 20 San Diegans who are prominent in local arts, will play a particularly important role in private fund-raising, Hall said.
“People give to people,” she said. For approaching corporations, the plan is more strategic, Hall said.
