It seems a little strange that Guadalupe is moving forward with its theater renovation project without having all the cash it needs in the bank yet.
The Royal Theater revamp fund is still short $3 million—that’s the same $3 million the Guadalupe City Council declined to ask its residents to fund via a bond measure on the November ballot. Now, the city’s put the project out to bid and seems to be crossing its fingers, hoping that the offered bids will be cheaper than the estimated cost it’s already been quoted.
“Given some of the bid documents, we are hoping to have alternative prices to reduce some of the big-ticket items to come under the contract amount we have,” Mayor Ariston Julian said.
Fat chance? Fingers crossed?
For new construction and historic renovation that will turn the Royal Theater into what city leaders hope is a community gathering space, cultural zenith, tourist attraction, moneymaker, and all-around boon for the city’s downtown, the city was quoted around $13.5 million. With $10.5 million in state and federal grants already waiting to be spent, the city is desperate not to lose access to any of it.
“The main purpose of it was to generate jobs, impact businesses and restaurants in the area. … Along the Pasadera, there’s commercial buildings going up and we’re working aggressively to get people to open up stores in the area,” Julian said. “The Royal Theater is the nucleus of those things that hope to happen in ways of improving jobs and economics.”
That’s a lot of hope to pin on one historic theater.
About $4.8 million in federal funding is on the chopping block if the city doesn’t start to move forward with the project before next March. So the city’s moving forward on a wing and a prayer and just crossing its fingers that the $3 million shortfall isn’t really short at all.
“We’re hoping to get an operator to submit a proposal and the bid comes in at the right price,” Project Manager Thomas Brandeberry said.
But don’t worry, he also said the city’s still looking at other options if it needs to raise the money. Those options include a capital campaign—something normally reserved for nonprofits. Hey, why not start a GoFundMe? I know that’s reserved for people in tight situations or emergencies, but the Royal Theater is sick and needs to go to the doctor. It just doesn’t have the dollars to get the full surgery. Help a building out, would ya?
At least Guadalupe isn’t worried about traffic. It almost sounds like the city would welcome it. But traffic is top of mind for Buellton—so top of mind that the city’s Planning Commission voted to put caveats on a proposed gymnastics facility. Classes, the city said, need to be at least 10 minutes apart to help “mitigate some of the traffic flow concerns and congestion at the driveway, and on Industrial Way,” according to Assistant Planner Cara Miralles.
Traffic is such an issue for Buellton residents that the City Council dumped an In-N-Out, so Pacific Flips made sure it addressed the traffic concerns before the project hit a red light (see what I did there?).
The Canary wants to hit the uneven bars and the drive thru. Send suggestions to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 22 – Sep 1, 2024.