Novato Theater Fundraiser a Success, but Deadline Looms

Just less than half a million bucks has been donated or pledged to get the shuttered renovated in downtown Novato, but an ominous deadline looms for the nonprofit leading the campaign.

The city of Novato agreed to let the Novato Screen Savers group purchase the theater at 924 Grant Ave. for $50,000 if $750,000 was raised by Sept. 1. The deadline originally was June 1 but an extension was secured this spring.

Volunteers were buoyed by the success of the at the Novato City Green that starred Wonder Bread 5 and Amy Wigton and was seen by 750 to 1,000 people. Novato Screen Savers director Bernice Baeza said the proceeds amounted to $46,500, boosting the total raised to about $475,000.

Novato City Manager Michael Frank said it would be up to the City Council to decide what to do if the nonprofit doesn’t reach the agreed-upon goal by the agreed-upon date.

Prior to Tuesday’s council meeting, Baeza said she hopes the city council members who showed up for the concert were duly impressed. She said she can’t imagine how the city would want to start from scratch at this point if the $750,000 benchmark isn’t met by Sept. 1.

“Understand that it is the most difficult time in the world for financing,” she said. “Can we just think how fabulous this response is considering the time we’re in? Guys who would easily say they’ll contribute $10,000 are saying $5,000.

“At the same time, I do understand they have to figure it out. … It’s a very difficult position for the council members, especially prior to re-election. I can say that the sooner the city will let this go, the sooner we can go and start. People are saying ‘As soon as you own this building, then we can talk.’ We’re just hoping we can keep them interested.”

Councilwoman Jeanne MacLeamy said she was impressed with the response at the Rock & Pledge benefit concert.

“It was a clear indication to me that there’s a lot of excited people about the theater being reopened, and I think it is the will of the community to make this happen,” she said. “Then we have to consider if there is anything to gain or lose if we allow them a little more time. If we don’t allow them more time, we start all over again. We need to know what the possibilities are.”

MacLeamy said she hopes what she saw at the concert is an accurate indication of what Novato citizens want, but “there could be those who believe it’s a big waste of time, and people might say, ‘Look at your next alternative.’ … I wonder whether we would have the time to do anything else before next year with everything else on our plate.”

CEO Kim Kaselionis announced at the concert that her company has agreed to partner with the nonprofit by providing a $1 million letter of credit toward the project, which was a city-imposed requirement to purchase the building. Kaselionis received a hearty ovation Sunday when she announced the partnership to the concert crowd.

At the council meeting, nonprofit volunteer Susan Bell-Warner emphasized the need for a centralized performing arts center in the downtown area and said the successful concert proved how much residents want the theater to be renovated and reopened.

“We feel it will be an easy decision (for the council) to agree to selling the theater to the nonprofit,” she said.

Bell-Warner said residents need to know that the fundraising effort is not all about writing checks. A pledge form is available on the theater’s website that allows contributors to split up payments over the next four months.

Also, Baeza continues to recruit investors for the nonprofit’s limited liability company. The nonprofit is designed to own at least 51 percent of the shares in the LLC, but the group is seeking people to pledge a minimum of $30,000 to take part in the partnership. Those investors would not receive a return on their money for 10 years, but after that they will be guaranteed a five-percent return per year in perpetuity. The long-term plan is that the nonprofit does well enough to buy out those initial big-ticket investors, Baeza said.

In February, before the group had a lot of momentum, Baeza said the LLC is considered a high-risk investment, but it worked well when she spearheaded the renovation of the Lark Theater in Larkspur. She remains executive director there and is acting on the Novato effort on her own.

“They had money sitting in retirement funds that weren’t doing well, and this was a much better deal for them,” she said of the Lark campaign. “It’s people with money in those retirement accounts they’re not using now who could be really good candidates for this investment.”

For more details on the renovation project, check www.novatotheater.net or find the page on Facebook.