Hisses, Melodrama Over Theater’s Fate

As Paul Normandin relives it, his wealthy parents simply wanted to create something of lasting value for the community when they bought the vintage 1927 Carlsbad Theater, an aging monument to silent movies and vaudeville.

The Normandins eagerly planned to spruce up the cavernous movie house, originally built to hold 600 patrons, and proudly preside over a Renaissance of local entertainment that would range from stage performances to films.

“Life is dreams,” poeticized Paul Normandin, who acts as spokesman for his parents, Raymond and Celestine.

But now, only three years after the Normandins paid $370,000 for the Spanish-style landmark that once stood alone in a bean field of pre-growth Carlsbad, the family is threatening to demolish it and walk away in a huff.

That’s unless the city, through its redevelopment program, hurriedly comes to the Normandins’ rescue by either taking the downtown theater off their hands or helping pay up to $2.6 million for renovation.

Dark, cold and looking haunted, the theater has been profitless since the city fire marshal ordered it closed in August, 1988 for being a fire hazard and violating building codes.

“We don’t own this building,” Normandin said sarcastically. “We just manage it for the city until government figures out what they want to do with it.”

However, city officials, irritated over being painted as bad guys, say the Normandins bought into their own misery and are trying through misrepresentation to pressure the city into bailing them out financially.

“He knew what the hell he was doing when he bought it,” said Marty Orenyak, city director of community development, who claims that the owners actually have made the theater less safe than it was when they acquired it.

Clearly, these are not the golden years for the theater at 2822 State St. that once boasted a Robert Morton pipe organ, lazy Sunday matinees and decorative side murals of North County scenes.

During the Depression, townsfolk couldn’t support the theater, but the newly arrived Army and Navy Academy rented it as a drama classroom and for staged performances. Within a few years, it reverted to private ownership and was used as a movie theater from 1946 to 1961.

It lapsed back to stage performances until the late ‘60s, when a new audience, the area’s Latino community, was entertained by Spanish-language movies until the theater was sold to the Normandins in 1986.

“This was bought emotionally by my parents,” said Paul Normandin. “They thought it would be a way of doing something for the community.”

He said his parents, who did well in real estate, were “under the impression” that the theater could still be used for plays.

Although some performances were staged under the Normandin’s stewardship, city building inspectors and the fire marshal took an increasingly critical interest in such activities.

According to Normandin’s version of events, there were repeated requirements to upgrade the theater to make it comply with codes, until finally, the fire marshal shut it down.

Referring to the earlier Spanish movie audiences, Normandin said “you could put 500 Mexicans in the theater and that’s OK, but you stage Neil Simon and that’s a fire problem. I call it selective enforcement.”

On this issue, city officials accuse Normandin of distortion.

Orenyak claims the city went along with the family’s desire to offer plays, but insisted that certain deficiencies such as the theater’s electrical problems and blocked exits first be remedied.

“We weren’t laying on 100,000 things to do, we just wanted to make it safe,” Orenyak said.

He said the Normandins did complete some repairs, but then upset fire officials by building a wooden extension of the existing stage. “They expanded the stage out. It was unprotected wood. It was a fire trap.”

Fire Marshal Mike Smith said, “The problem is, the building was obviously designed back in the ‘20s to handle live theater productions. It met the code requirements of that day.”

Smith credits the Normandins with trying to upgrade the theater.

“I really think they were making an effort to make that place work,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s going to take some funds to rehabilitate the theater to the point it can handle live theater on a regular basis.”

Movies create less of a problem because, unlike stage productions, they require no potentially flammable sets and props with overhead lighting that could ignite a fire.

“My opinion is, the building is unsafe for the public if there are live performances in there,” Smith said. “On that basis, we had to close it.”

The closure left the Normandins in a financial corner, and they put the Carlsbad Theater back on the market for a reported asking price of $750,000.

Meanwhile, they’re pushing the city for a commitment and arguing that it would be a shame for the city to lose a historically significant building that could be turned into an entertainment boon.

“We want the city to take us out of it and let the community have entertainment,” said Normandin, later adding, “We make proposals, and they don’t ever respond.”

He gets no sympathy from Orenyak, who believes that the city has been more than generous by paying for a $15,000 theater feasibility study by San Diego architect Wayne Donaldson. The report concludes it would cost $1.9 million to $2.6 million to renovate the theater, which 39 performing arts organizations contacted for the study suggested would be best used for plays and small concerts.

While Normandin waits, Orenyak is preparing a staff report that he indicated will oppose buying and restoring it.

“I’d personally like to see the theater restored and used, but you’ve got to look at it from a practical standpoint,” Orenyak said.

Key among those practical considerations is the city’s limited redevelopment funds.

“We’ve just spent $7 million to $8 million on a street-scape plan and, frankly, we don’t have any money,” he said. Further, Orenyak said he doesn’t appreciate being leveraged by the owners, whose tactics he characterized as, “Look, the city’s the bad guy. Look, I’ve got this beautiful theater and can do all these good things for Carlsbad, and the city won’t spend money to do anything about it.”

Michael Markie, a real-estate agent who is trying to find other buyers for the property, acknowledges that there’s “bad blood” between Paul Normandin and City Hall. He said the foul atmosphere is making it difficult to attract prospective purchasers, although “there’s been 150 to 200 inquiries.”

He says the city might be delaying a decision on the theater to sweat the Normandins into a cut-rate sale.

“If you’ve got a building that costs several hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, the city can hold out and get their price,” Markie said.

Lately, Normandin has vowed that the theater will be demolished by year’s end if nothing happens fast. He argues that state law requires unreinforced masonry structures like the theater to be strengthened by 1991.

“That puts all my family’s assets at risk. If there’s an earthquake and somebody injured, they own us,” said Normandin. Therefore, “We have to have the building torn down by end of this year.”

That argument doesn’t impress Orenyak, who does agree that “it’s an old building and requires some seismic retrofitting, and someday, he’ll have to do that.”

But more immediately, Orenyak said, state law sets no deadline for making buildings earthquake safe and only requires unreinforced masonry structures to be identified.

The theater issue is expected to go before the city Housing and Redevelopment Advisory Committee, perhaps next month. In the meantime, Normandin is talking about organizing a city petition campaign to put city funding for the theater on the local ballot.