{"id":244293,"date":"2011-05-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/birch-north-park-theatre-closer-to-sale\/"},"modified":"2011-05-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T07:00:00","slug":"birch-north-park-theatre-closer-to-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/birch-north-park-theatre-closer-to-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Birch North Park Theatre closer to sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Birch<\/a>
Historic Birch North Park Theatre closer to a sale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBy Dave Scwab |<\/strong> Reportero SDUN<\/p>\n

On the market for $5.5 million since October 2010, North Park\u2019s mint-condition, historic Birch Theater building, housing an opera house, a Starbucks and Uptown\u2019s premier tavern, is inching closer to a sale.<\/p>\n

Seven months ago, three undisclosed groups had expressed interest in buying the theater building, said Leon Natker, general director of the Lyric Opera (recently renamed Lyric at the Birch), which currently owns the building at 2891 University Ave.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of [the groups] is the same; plus there are two others that are currently prepared to make offers,\u201d he said. \u201cI would say we should have something on the table in the next month.\u201d Natker\u2019s scheduled to meet the week of May 16 with the property broker to discuss the status of the sale, which he said could be consummated as early as this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the deal concluded by October, that would be pretty good,\u201d he noted adding, \u201cThat\u2019s what it takes to sell a house in this market\u2014about a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

A successful $200,000 fundraising drive launched by Lyric more than six months ago temporarily stemmed a serious cash flow problem. But Lyric\u2019s managing board, the primary as well as managing tenant of the building, has decided it\u2019s best to seek a new outside owner-operator.<\/p>\n

An ideal buyer would be \u201csomebody who has connections to a promoter the size of Live Nation,\u201d said Natker. \u201cWe\u2019re not doing this because we\u2019re going out of business or running for cover: What we\u2019re trying to do is ensure the future of the North Park Theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theater building owned and managed by Lyric could be a steal for the right buyer, said Patrick Edwards,
\na longtime North Park businessman and member of the theater\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a financial investment in a structure that is undervalued, has great potential and is a great opportunity
\nfor someone to own a neighborhood theater,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Edwards noted that the dilemma Lyric finds itself in happened through no fault of the theatre\u2019s management. The problem, he said, is due to a contractual agreement that fell apart. <\/p>\n

Patrick said the agreement between Redevelopment, the developer and Lyric was that, if the theatre was not open in time for the next season, the Lyric would be reimbursed for its normal expected income from that season. That agreement required three signatures to be approved but, since staff changed at Redevelopment during the construction, the third signature was never signed, and the city attorney refused to accept the terms of the agreement. Since the opening was delayed a year, Lyric was forced to use its line of credit to continue to pay staff and expenses. Redevelopment never paid back that line of credit.<\/p>\n

The developer also agreed to provide the Lyric with a simple lease for $1\/year. \u201cHowever, after the Lyric was operational, the developer transferred the ownership of the theatre to the Lyric, a non-profit corporation, which required an emergency fund-raising campaign to pay down the mortgage,\u201d said Edwards.<\/p>\n

Edwards believes there is one condition in particular that should make purchasing the theatre attractive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a deed restriction that the building will always be a theater,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can\u2019t be gutted and made into a shopping mall, or condos or a parking structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whoever buys the building from Lyric has the advantage of long-term leases with the building\u2019s other two tenants, Starbucks and West Coast Tavern, added Edwards, noting Birch is also one of the few historically
\nintact theaters left in San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has its complete original fabric, both exterior and interior\u2014 seats, loft, everything from 1929,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The North Park Theatre has a long and varied history. Built in 1928, it is the only theater of its size in San Diego County (730 seats) featuring a fly-loft for legitimate live theater productions, a full-size movable
\norchestra pit and a projection room for motion picture exhibition.<\/p>\n

Birch stopped showing movies in 1974 and sat idle for several years. A church bought it and used it for services and Sunday school meetings through the 1980s. In the late 1980s, the city of San Diego purchased
\nthe theater from the church with the intention of restoring it to use as a performing space. But it rejected several plans from developers, mainly because of lack of funding.<\/p>\n

In 2000, developer Bud Fischer approached Lyric Opera San Diego with the approval of the city of San Diego to explore a restoration project. Fundraising on the part of Lyric Opera began in 2001. Renovation of the theater has transformed it from an unused, out-of- date venue to an entertainment destination with high-tech, state-of-the-art staging and lighting systems, projection equipment, and a multi-channel theater sound system. Connections to nearby fiber-optic lines provide high-speed access to the Internet and to global telecommunications systems, enabling simultaneous web casting of performances or a hookup to the Convention Center for meetings.<\/p>\n

The theater building is not only ideally appointed but ideally situated, said Edwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reconfiguration of the theater was done spectacularly, and the building is near a parking structure for 400 cars,\u201d he said. \u201cIf that theater was in Chicago, it would be a $28-million facility. But because it was leveraged with redevelopment and property and tax-increment monies, the structure was built for $6 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, added Edwards, is that there are plans to redevelop property near the theater that will potentially increase its value.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to add a $4-million business park right behind the theater property. To buy a $6-million structure with the city throwing in a $4-million business park in this economy\u2014I have a lot of confidence we won\u2019t be talking about the theater being up for sale for too much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lyric Opera-owned theater building is a centerpiece of North Park\u2019s ongoing commercial renaissance,
\nsaid Elizabeth \u201cLiz\u201d Studebaker, executive director of North Park Main Street, the community\u2019s Business
\nImprovement District, which represents 530 small businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe renovation of the theater has done wonders for the North Park community\u2019s ability to attract other complementary businesses to the district,\u201d said Studebaker. \u201cWith the theater, you have a creative gathering space where a diversity of different talents can be displayed. I\u2019m optimistic that there will be an investor, or a theater management outfit, that sees North Park as a great opportunity to start a project. No one wants to see the theater close.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards said the community isn\u2019t the only entity with a serious stake in ensuring the theater building
\ncontinues operating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in discussion with the bank, the owner of the mortgage, and they\u2019re not interested in owning
\na theater,\u201d he said. \u201cThe bank doesn\u2019t want to foreclose. Lyric doesn\u2019t want to default. So we\u2019re just waiting to see who\u2019s going to pick up the building as a bargain and continue to make it work.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dave Scwab | SDUN Reporter On the market for $5.5 million since October 2010, North Park\u2019s mint-condition, historic Birch Theater building, housing an opera house, a Starbucks and Uptown\u2019s premier tavern, is inching closer to a sale. Seven months ago, three undisclosed groups had expressed interest in buying the theater building, said Leon Natker, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Birch North Park Theatre closer to sale","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}