Fund-Raising Effort in Jeopardy : Another Act in Balboa Theater Saga Ends With Renovation in Doubt

Four days ago, the Balboa Theater Foundation thought it was on its way to obtaining the San Diego City Council’s endorsement. Using that endorsement as a badge of credibility, the foundation had hoped to begin a multimillion dollar community fund-raising drive for the restoration of the historic and controversial 1,400-seat Balboa Theater downtown.

But on Friday, the foundation--which wants to bring back live performances to the 63-year-old theater--found out that it is essentially back at ground zero.

It appears that the City Council’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee erred Wednesday when it directed the city attorney to draft an exclusive contract with the foundation giving it rights to raise money for project, according to city officials.

The first problem is that the building doesn’t belong to the city. The theater is in condemnation proceedings and technically still in private ownership, even though the Centre City Development Corp., the city agency in charge of downtown redevelopment, has possession of the structure.

Condemnation Trial

City and CCDC officials say that any action giving the foundation an exclusive endorsement could potentially jeopardize the condemnation trial, which is set for this fall. Foundation officials, however, call such claims bogus.

Additionally, once the theater’s ownership changes hands, the property will belong to CCDC, and as such, that is the agency with jurisdiction over any exclusive endorsement agreements. That means the foundation would have to go through a CCDC review before its proposal reached the City Council, acting in its capacity as directors of the redevelopment agency.

That is an important distinction because CCDC has been the city’s lead agency in the ongoing Balboa Theater dilemma, which just last month took another turn when the proposed San Diego Art Center museum project was abandoned by its backers because of the $15-million price tag.

CCDC is now in the midst of forming a committee of San Diego-area theater representatives and patrons to more closely study the comparative merits of the Balboa and the nearby and little-used Spreckels Theater. The 1,472-seat Spreckels, located at 121 Broadway, is privately owned.

Foundation officials contend that CCDC and its top administrator, Gerald Trimble, favor the Spreckels and are intent on putting bureaucratic roadblocks in the path of any plan to restore live theater to the Balboa, a contention CCDC says is wrong.

There is a second problem facing the foundation. Once ownership of the theater rests with CCDC, it’s clear that the city, as well as CCDC, will insist on a critical analysis of the ramifications of entering into an exclusive endorsement contract with the foundation.

That means bringing up such questions as how much it will cost to restore the building, and whether it should be sold to a developer for its best use, which is not necessarily a theater, said Anne Rast, consultant for the Public Facilities and Recreation Committee.

‘A Lot of Options’

“There are a lot of options out there, I think we’d definitely want to caution them,” said Rast. “It is going to cost a significant amount of money to rehabilitate the building, for one thing.”

The Balboa Theater building is now closed and boarded up.

Deputy City Manager Jack McGrory, who represented the city administration at the Tuesday meeting, said, “I don’t think anybody was aware of the current status of the building at the time of the (committee) vote. It’s premature to at this time enter into any kind of exclusive negotiating agreement.”

McGrory said that’s exactly what the city manager’s office will tell the committee when the matter returns to it on June 10.

The turn of events caught Balboa Theater Foundation officials off-guard. Robert L. Purvin Jr., the attorney for the foundation, said Friday he is convinced, based on discussions with City Council members, that the City Council is in favor of allowing the foundation to raise money for the restoration.

The problem, he said, is that Trimble and CCDC want to keep the focus on the Spreckels Theater and away from the Balboa. “It’s clear from my conversations with Gerald Trimble . . . that he wants to put it (Balboa) on the back burner until there is some resolution to the Spreckels,” Purvin said.

“We’re baffled that Gerald Trimble, on the one hand, wants to put the Balboa Theater in mothballs for some period of time” and then objects to anyone wanting to raise money for its restoration, Purvin said. What the foundation is seeking, he said, is for the city and CCDC to “give us their blessing and see how much money we can raise.”

Toni Michetti, president of the foundation, said that, without an endorsement from the city, the foundation won’t be able to raise enough revenue for the restoration, which she said would cost an estimated $5 million or more.

“In most cases, people with big money say we need a city endorsement before they’ll contribute,” Michetti said. “They keep asking us when we’re going to get started.”

David Allsbrook, projects director for CCDC, has been involved in the continuing controversy that has surrounded the Balboa for several years. He said criticism that CCDC has a hidden agenda that favors the Spreckels is unfounded.

“I don’t think that’s a fair assessment,” Allsbrook said. “To say we favor one over the other is not accurate.”

For example, he said, it’s clear that CCDC will take over ownership of the building, so it doesn’t make sense for the agency to ignore it. “We’ve got to take (ownership) possession of it and deal with it,” he said.

Last month, in an interview with the Times, Trimble said he wasn’t convinced that the foundation was capable “of being a developer . . . and I don’t know if the City Council is very willing to” spend millions of dollars to restore the structure.

Speculation about the Spreckels Theater has sprung anew for two reasons. First, a recent study conducted for the City Council assessing downtown’s performing arts needs for the next decade called for the restoration of the Spreckels.

“If only one theater were to be renovated, there is no doubt that this honor should go to the Spreckels Theater from a purely technical standpoint,” the study said. “San Diego possesses in this building one of the finest theaters in the U.S.”

In contrast, the study said, the Balboa “presents the most significant problems for renovation due to its relatively shallow stage depth and small lobby.”

Second, the owner of the Spreckels, Jacquie Littlefield, has recently contacted CCDC. However, she didn’t specifically mention the theater, according to Trimble. Kathy Kalland, CCDC spokeswoman, said Friday that the agency responded to Littlefield’s letter and is awaiting a response.