Lafayette will decide tonight what to do with the first half of $6.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act federal stimulus money, including likely using $500,000 to close escrow on the Park Theater.
The half million dollars would allow the Park Theater Trust (PTT) to hit its Dec. 15 deadline and avoid a price increase, according to a staff report for Monday’s meeting. Earlier this year, the price was estimated to be around $3 million.
The downtown theater closed in 2005. The city created the PTT in 2018 to restore the theater and make it a focal point in a revitalized downtown.
“Taking possession of the property will give impetus to PTT’s efforts to raise funds to renovate the property,” the report says.
Located on Golden Gate Way, the theater has 4,850 square feet of space and seats 344. The site also includes a fourplex apartment building. The renovated theater would include a mezzanine community space, a rooftop terrace, and green space along Lafayette Creek.
The report says staff recommends the council direct the federal money to the theater purchase as one of the council’s four 2021 goals. The most frequent answer to an August 2021 survey of Lafayette businesses as to what downtown improvements would help business was “additional arts, culture and entertainment venues.” At least one other community survey showed widespread support for bringing back the theater.
“One of the purposes of the ARPA funds is to mitigate the negative economic impacts of the pandemic on small businesses. Other than the (other) business recovery allocations recommended above, no investment will do more to stimulate economic recovery in Lafayette’s business district than the revitalization of the Park Theater,” the report says.
The theater opened Aug. 21, 1941, less than four months before the U.S. entered World War II. The goal is to reopen in 2023.
To find out more about the effort to reopen the Lafayette Park Theater, people can go to https://parktheatertrust.org/.
The other recommended allocations of the $6,372,376 in federal money — half of which the city received in July, with the other half coming in July 2022 — include $880,555 to protect existing city services and replace general revenue losses caused by the pandemic (city calculations for revenue loss is actually $2.9 million, but more federal money may be on the way).
The second listed priority is to spend $101,000 to support the economic recovery of households and work with established nonprofits serving the needs of city residents.
The council would allocate $862,500 for small business recovery, including $67,500 on a public relations firm to connect businesses with resources, as would $350,000 for the chamber of commerce to put on events promoting the city, as well as day-to-day operations. The city would direct $100,000 for business district marketing, up to $100,000 for small business technical assistance, and $200,000 to continue much of the outdoor dining necessitated by the pandemic.
The council will also consider giving $15,000 to a business district shuttle program.
Addressing direct expenses caused by COVID-19, staff recommends the council spend $520,000 on outside consultants, expenses incurred by workers — including the council — working from home, and investment in ventilation/HVAC to allow more extensive use of the Lafayette Community Center.
The Lafayette City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday
14 comments
Fix that Dangerous Traffic Roundabout at Olympic & Pleasant Hill rd.
The bottom line is that it is “fun” money to spend on hobbies. I’m sure it’s a nice theater, but it is not a focal point and never will be. It is at the far end of Lafayette development wedged with no parking near the library and apartments. Everything else developed going west. A rescue plan is supposed to rescue, not prop up someone’s hobby. If ethics were universal, the money should be returned to go towards society’s needs. Like a border wall.
They are good a pissing away other peoples money. At least they are not putting it towards the Crazy Train to nowhere.
Reopen El Charro in its old spot. Lol
Easy to spend the money
Spend a few Million on a consultant
Spend $20k to get it typed up
Fritter the rest away on lavish fact-finding trips for the City Council.
Raise taxes to get stuff done and blame the economy, the fake pandemic, and government regulations.
Look for all the new cars in the City Offices parking lot.
Saw many a movie at the Park theater. I would go weeknights so no one would sit in front of me. The seating is rather flat so if anyone sat in front of you then you couldn’t see the screen very well. Modern theaters have “stadium” seating to get around that. Not sure how that could be done in that building. They had great popcorn though with real butter.
Ah yes, much needed federal funds to be used to help renovate a theater that no one knows existed for over 16 years. Now I see how important it was to pass The American Rescue Plan Act…
-.- no.
Get used to it – years of baskets of money to be showered on all of us. All printed out of thin air and worth less than the paper it’s printed on. All to buy votes, create opportunities for graft, and perpetuate the socialist agenda. The great money shower has begun.
Restoration of the Park Theatre is really a glimpse into another era and I’m actually glad to hear this. It’s truly an “old-fashioned” theatre, the kind that used to babysit us on Saturday afternoons when we were kids. Small and intimate, and a much more pleasant experience than those big, impersonal ones. I saw a lot of movies at the Park in the 80s, Flashdance, Working 9 To 5, and Top Gun, among others. I wish them luck.
Way to spend Taxpayers $$$! Amazes me how stupid local government officials are. If you can’t get a private developer in there to remodel the theater and run it at a profit what makes the Lafayette City Council think they can make it to a viable asset by spending tax payers $$$ on it?
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A left-wing slush fund.
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This is how Dems plunges the US into needless debt and keeps their voters as lap dogs.
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A theatre. Not meals for the homeless. Not turkeys and Christmas presents for poor families in need over the holiday season. Not toys for tots. A theatre. I know the money is earmarked as stimulus money but it seems wastefull to spend the money on a theatre when there are people in need. Just another shining example of our governments inefectuality.
So which community is the chichi? Lafayette, Orinda or Walnut Creek? Of course the chichi will want to renovate an old theater which might be appropriate in more flush times but maybe not now.
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