City may help with Balboa Theater renewal

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- The troubled Balboa Theater renovation could get a

$1.6-million city bailout.

City Council members will consider whether to buy the building at 111

Main St., where an Orange Julius and other businesses are located. The

purchase could more than triple the city’s current financial investment

in the theater, which it bought in 1998 for $480,000.

“The reason that the city made that investment is because we saw the

rehabilitation of the theater as a possible catalyst for the

revitalization of the whole village,” said Assistant City Manager Sharon

Wood. “Now the question is: Does the city want to make a further

investment into making that happen?”

Mayor Tod Ridgeway’s answer is yes. Ridgeway proposed the idea to buy

the Main Street building because it could be used for space needed for

dressing rooms, restrooms and rehearsal space. But he hopes the purchase

could have another benefit as well.

“My intent as both that district’s representative and as mayor is to

make sure that the city has a voting representative on the board of

directors of the foundation. I would even propose we have two people who

are voting members on that board,” Ridgeway said. “I have said publicly

to the foundation that things will change if we make this deal.”

Balboa Performing Arts Theatre Foundation President Dayna Pettit said

she supports the idea of purchasing the building and that she would

welcome the appointment of city officials to the board.

“We don’t have a problem with that,” Pettit said. “We have always

invited them to be involved.”

The foundation’s goal of reopening the historic vaudeville house as a

first-rate theater has suffered a series of setbacks in recent months and

years. Fund-raising efforts have left the project $2.5 million to $3

million short of the $5.5 million needed.

A plan to build a basement with restrooms, offices and rehearsal space

also caused a snag. Original estimates to build the basement were

$300,000, but because it would be below the water table, physical

reinforcements would be needed, pushing estimates to $1.8 million.

Buying the building next door could solve that problem, as well as a

problem with electrical systems. The businesses at 111 Main St. have their electrical hardware attached to the theater building -- a fact

foundation officials didn’t know until they were thinking of knocking out

that wall.

Ridgeway’s plan, which council members will consider at their study

session Tuesday, would use some of the space at 111 Main St. for the

theater. The remaining portion of the property eventually would be sold

to help defray the cost to the city. A city-hired appraiser estimated the

building’s value at $1.4 million. The owner’s appraiser valued it at $1.6

million, which is the current asking price for the property.

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 june.casagrande@latimes.comf7 .