Guadalupe City Councilmember Whitney Furness is the first member of the city’s capital campaign committee that will raise money to complete the Royal Theater renovation project.
The council voted to form the committee and have her serve on it at the Jan. 14 meeting where it also received an update on the project’s redesign, which is 50 percent complete. With only $10.5 million in state and federal grants to fund the project and projected construction costs that put the remodel at $14 million, the city reduced the size of the project from three stories to one story and was granted an extension on the project’s start time. But Project Manager Thomas Brandeberry said the project may still require more funding than the city has.
“With the other funding sources that have not turned out to be available, it’s probably time for us to start thinking about doing a capital campaign,” he told the council. “Just to ensure we have enough funds.”
In early January, the city applied for a $900,000 grant from the California Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program as an additional funding source. Brandeberry said the city made it through the first round of eligibility for the grant and is waiting to hear about the second, final round.
“Some of the things that a capital campaign could pay for and cover are not necessarily things that are in the grant funding,” he said. “For instance, once the construction is complete, there’s a need for, in essence, finding funding to getting the project up and running prior to the project getting any revenue being generated.”
The City Council wondered whether Guadalupe had enough money to complete the project as it was planned. Brandeberry said he wouldn’t know for sure until the revised estimate is complete for the project, something the city should have “in the next couple of weeks.”
He added that the estimate would come with a detailed price breakdown that goes item by item.
“They like to say price estimate. I like to say price guesstimate,” Brandeberry said. “The detail is a guess; it isn’t the actual construction cost. … We’ll have to wait for the bid.”
Resident Melanie Backer said she was concerned about Brandeberry running the capital campaign.
“My problem is the project manager who didn’t let everyone know there was a $3 million shortfall, now wants to head up the campaign,” Backer said. “One person cannot run this whole Royal Theater situation.”
Committee members will be appointed by the council, and the committee will be made up of residents and one council member. Furness, who was appointed to serve on the council last year and elected in November, said she was excited to move forward with the process.
“It sounds great. I actually, several months ago, put together a thought process on the capital campaign,” she said.
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 9, 2025.