25 - GRAND THEATER UPDATEItem No. 25
memorandum
TO: City Council
John Godwin, City Manager
FROM: Shawn Napier, P.E., Director of Engineering, Planning & Development
SUBJECT: GRAND THEATER UPDATE
DATE: November 24, 2014
BACKGROUND: The Grand Theater has been discussed at several City Council meetings over
the past years. A basic timeline starts when the City acquired the Grand Theater on May 26,
2009. The property taxes had been delinquent from 1995 through 2000 in the amount of
$65,058.32. The City obtained the Theater in order to apply for an EPA Brownfield grant. The
City applied for and received a Brownfield Grant from the EPA in the amount of $200,000 that
required a $40,000 match from the City for a total of $240,000. Terracon ($59,075) was selected
to prepare the environmental cleanup plans. In August 2011 a contract was awarded to 911
Restoration ($71,777) to begin the first phase of the Grand Theater cleanup. The roof over the
entry way collapsed on November 21, 2011. A contract was awarded to NCM Demolition
($47,539.65) in June 2012 to begin the second phase of the Grand Theater cleanup.
A contract with Denney Architects ($18,500) was approved in January 2013. The contract was
for the design of the fagade, front entry, firewall and roof of the Grand Theater. The City
received an $85,000 check from the roof collapse lawsuit in April 2013. At the August 13, 2012
meeting, council gave direction with moving forward on the idea of replacing the roof and roof
shell structure over the existing entrance lobby area (approximately 18 -feet x 70 -feet) and
rebuilding the fagade in conjunction with the Leadership in Lamar County Class Project. In
October 2013 a contract was awarded to Bobby Smallwood Construction ($152,154) to repair the
roof and renovate the fagade. The City has sent a request to the Leadership Lamar County class
for money that the class raised to renovate the fagade and sign.
STATUS OF ISSUE: Portions of the Grand Theater still need to be cleaned from the
environmental hazards. The estimate to finish the remaining cleanup is $200,000. We were
recently turned down for an additional grant. Long -term, our plan has been to complete the
remediation before moving forward with a long -term management lease to a local non - profit
group, which would finish out the interior and operate the facility. Because this process is taking
so long, an option to be considered might be offering the facility for sale to such a local group,
granting a credit to that group for the cost of the remediation work. The group could begin fund-
raising as the owners of the historic theater, and move forward with promoting future activities
and events.
BUDGET: Currently there are two existing contracts with Bobby Smallwood Construction and
Denney Architects. The outstanding dollar amount of the two contracts comes to $43,142.14.
RECOMMENDATION: Provide direction to staff on the future of the Grand Theater.