Balboa Theater project faces new setback

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- A city plan to buy the Orange Julius building for the

Balboa Theater has been stopped in its tracks by the news that the

building has been taken off the market.

City and theater officials still hope there’s a way that they can

lease a portion of the building to house the proposed theater’s dressing

rooms, restroom and offices. But the possibility of leasing the space

from the current owner is shaky at best and depends largely on costs.

“It’s not the right time to talk about the negotiations right now,”

said Dayna Pettit, president of the Balboa Theater’s Performing Arts

Foundation.

Theater supporters were thrilled in April when council members voted

to put up $1.4 million to buy the building next door to the closed Balboa

Theater. It was a worthwhile investment, they agreed, because the added

space for the dressing rooms and restrooms would allow the renovated

theater to become the world-class venue the city and residents have long

envisioned.

The plan to buy the building at 111 Main St., called by many the

Orange Julius building, was a solution to an earlier plan to build a

dressing room and restrooms underground.

Original estimates to build the basement were $300,000.

But those costs skyrocketed when planners realized that, because it would

be below the water table, physical reinforcements would be needed. The

revised cost was $1.8 million.

The historic vaudeville house, which was last used as a movie theater,

has been empty since 1992.

Efforts to reopen the venue as a 350-seat proscenium house, similar to

South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, have been plagued with problems,

most of them financial.

The city bought the theater building in 1999 for $480,000.

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

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