Theatre Foundation Not Giving Up Even If Demolition Takes Place

CAPE MAY- Like the Energizer Bunny, Steve Jackson, president of the Beach Theatre Foundation, keeps going and going and refuses to give up his quest to save the 50-year-old theater even if a section of the building is demolished in a few weeks.
“It ain’t over,” said Jackson. “If that theater goes down and he’s got a parking lot there, that is not the end of it, we will still pursue developers to develop that project as we’ve seen it with a theater and most likely a hotel.”
Jackson said the mission of the foundation is to save the theater but also to keep a movie theater in that spot in Cape May even if it is a newly constructed movie house.
He disputes a claim by Bruce Frank, president and CEO of Frank Theatres that the foundation owes the theatre company $50,000 in back rent. (See related story).
Jackson said $50,000 was paid to Frank Theatres to extend the foundation’s lease six months. He said there were disputed charges with Frank Theatres for less than $50,000 for “common area maintenance charges.”
The foundation’s agreement with Frank Theatres was for an “operable theater and operable systems within the theater,” but when the foundation’s lease began in Oct. 2007, the building’s heating system did not work, said Jackson.
He said when warm weather arrived in summer, the air conditioning was not working.
“We spent tens of thousands of dollars,” he said. “We’re saying we put out monies that according to our agreement we should not have put out to make the place operable.”
In the end, the repair costs and common area maintenance charges “equaled out,” said Jackson.
He told the Herald he is not worried about the $100,000 loan the foundation must repay to the City of Cape May. The foundation used the funds to lease the Beach Theatre and operate it from the fall of 2007 to the end of 2008.
Jackson said the financing is a balloon loan with “extremely modest interest prior to the maturity,” which comes due in the fall of 2012. He said “dozens and dozens” of local businesspersons and residents made pledges to guaranty repayment of the loan to the city if the foundation does not have the funds.
In a worse case scenario, Cape May taxpayers would not be responsible for the loan. The fund was set up with the state Department of Community Affairs originally to loan $600,000 for the reconstruction of Congress Hall hotel. That loan was repaid.
The Beach Theatre Foundation has been trying to find the financing to purchase the theater from Frank Theatres or interest a developer in buying it.
Jackson said if the foundation were able to find a developer to create a “boutique hotel” with a theater, the loan repayment would be a small part of a multimillion-dollar deal. The loan pay back would be blended in with the development costs, he said.
Jackson question’s Bruce Frank’s theory that movie theaters in shore towns are no longer financially viable. Jackson said if a theater is in good condition, it would draw customers.
The Frank’s Rio Grande complex is doing very well because it is state of the art, said Jackson. He said a clean, technically up to date theater could do well in Cape May or Wildwood.
Customers will not come to a theater that is dirty, smells moldy, the film projection and sound is of poor quality and the seats are rotting away, said Jackson.
Jackson said the foundation does not regret its work in keeping the theater open for the 2007 and 2008 summer seasons.
The rumor mill in Cape May is turning out stories of a parking lot replacing the rear section of the Beach Theatre and even a parking garage to serve a Convention Hall set to open in 2011.
Jackson said he would rather see the foundation operate the theater for the next few years rather than see a parking lot on the property in the event no new development is not undertaken for the next two to three years