L.A. OKs Matching Loan to Back Alley : Post Office Conversion to Theater Gets a Boost

A $2.1-million plan to restore the historic Van Nuys Post Office for use as a theater has been given a boost with a $400,000 loan from the City of Los Angeles.

The City Council on Tuesday approved the loan to help the Back Alley Theatre buy, renovate and expand the vacant building at 14530 Sylvan St. into a 368-seat proscenium theater.

The loan is contingent on the theater group raising about $1.1 million within one year. The nonprofit group already has raised more than $300,000, according to Parker Anderson, director of industrial and commercial development for the city’s Community Development Department.

“In effect, what we’ve made is a challenge loan,” Anderson said.

The group cannot count a $100,000 grant the state recently awarded for the project as part of the $1.1 million.

The Back Alley Theatre operates a 93-seat playhouse in a converted warehouse on Burbank Boulevard. The facility “does not allow for full expansion of the artistic vision of the artists associated with the theater, nor sufficient income to support equitable salaries for artists and administrators,” according to a letter sent by the group to the council.

Built in 1935

The old post office, built in 1935, is one of the few examples in the San Fernando Valley of the distinctive architectural style often used by the Works Progress Administration, a federal agency that used construction projects to create jobs during the Depression.

It has been declared a historic landmark by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.

The city is lending money for the project under a modern-day jobs program.

A Community Development Department report recommending the loan says the project will create 44 jobs.

The report also says the project will greatly boost efforts to revitalize the Van Nuys business district.

Laura Zucker, producing director of the Back Alley Theatre, said she would not answer questions about the project “until we are sure it is going forward.”

An agreement between the city and the theater group that spells out the conditions of the loan must go back to the council and then to Mayor Tom Bradley for final approval.