Fillmore sets stage for revival of 101-year-old theater

The Fillmore City Council is holding out hope that the 101-year-old Towne Theatre, vacant for the past six years, might again become a working theater and a hub of the community.

The landmark single-screen movie theater on Central Avenue was owned by the city’s redevelopment agency until the state dissolved redevelopment agencies in 2012. The state law that ended redevelopment mandates that cities act on behalf of their former redevelopment agencies to sell properties, such as the Towne Theatre, that aren’t used for core government purposes.

The Fillmore Council could essentially sell the property to itself. If that happens, the city would pay the assessed value of about $380,000 to Ventura County, which would then distribute the money among government agencies operating in Fillmore, including the city and school district. The city would reclaim 22.3 percent of the price, or about $85,000.

The city’s other option is to sell the property at market value to an outside buyer. The city would still get its 22.3 percent share of the purchase price.

On Tuesday night, the Fillmore Council decided not to do either, yet. There’s no strict deadline to unload former redevelopment properties, city finance consultant Frank Catania told the council, and council members said they wanted to wait and see if a buyer could be found who would pledge to keep a theater of some kind in that spot.

“There’s no rush on this,” Councilwoman Diane McCall said. “Allowing the pot to simmer a little bit might be the best thing we could do at this point.”

The Towne Theatre opened in 1916 and was privately owned for most of the 20th century. After it was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the city redevelopment agency bought and renovated it.

The theater showed first-run movies from 1996 to 2011, but the market was never really there for a downtown movie theater. The city lost money on the theater every year, running up a total deficit of $421,000, owed to the city’s general reserve fund.

The city would have to spend about $192,000 on renovations if it wants to reopen the theater. Combined with the price of the property and the cost of paying off the debt, the city would spend more than $900,000 to get a renovated, debt-free theater.

There was no support on the council for that route. Instead, council members said they wanted Ernie Villegas, a former council member who is working as a consultant with the city on downtown business issues, to look for a local buyer or buyers.

The Towne Theatre is one of two remaining city properties that belonged to the redevelopment agency. The other is an empty lot on Santa Clara Street, near Central Avenue, that is now used for public parking. The council voted 5-0 to sell this property. It was assessed at $200,000.

Also on Tuesday, the council voted to continue negotiating with KB Home over a proposed 104-unit condominium development at the south end of town. The project came before the City Council two weeks ago, but the council did not vote on it. Council members criticized the architectural design, the parking and other elements of the proposal and asked KB Home to make revisions.

At Tuesday's meeting, the council appointed two of its members, McCall and Manuel Minjares, to work with KB Home on changes to the project. An attorney for KB Home agreed to put on hold a lawsuit the developer has filed against the city over the project, giving the two sides three to six months to revise the plans and bring them back before the City Council for another vote.