Renovation Upstaged in Favor of a New Theater

The long-running saga of Palmdale’s bid to build a performing arts center has taken yet another twist, with city officials dumping plans to renovate an old auditorium in favor of building a new 400-seat theater on donated land.

The 3-2 decision Thursday night by the Palmdale City Council was the latest in at least four major shifts in the city’s theater plans during the past seven years. The city’s stake in the project has climbed from about $750,000 to $4 million.

“I think we have come a long way and hopefully made a decision,” Mayor Pete Knight said. “Only time will tell the rightness of that decision. I think it’s appropriate we have a new building as opposed to an old building.”

Under the latest plan, the city intends to build a 400-seat, 19,000-square-foot theater center on 5.7 acres of vacant land east of the Antelope Valley Freeway, just south of Palmdale Boulevard. Los Angeles developer Ron Ordin has offered to give the land to the city.

The city thus abandoned the approach chosen by the council in July--converting the city’s Maryott Auditorium, a 40-year-old former school building in the downtown area, into a similar 400-seat, 17,400-square-foot theater. City officials said either project would total $4 million to $5 million.

Although there were major disputes about the costs of each approach, news that the amounts would be similar helped sway a majority of the council in favor of a new theater. Knight and council members Joe Davies and Jim Root favored the plan, while Janis Hamm and Jim Ledford voted no.

The decision was applauded by the Antelope Valley Cultural Foundation, the nonprofit group that has spearheaded the theater project. The foundation wanted the new building and has pledged at least $750,000 in private donations toward construction and related costs.

“We’re very excited,” said David Milligan, executive director of the foundation. He predicted that the city has finally settled on a plan and that the project could be completed in 20 months.

However, some have questioned the project because the neighboring city of Lancaster has just built a 725-seat civic theater at nearly $13 million.

Also, the Palmdale council’s decision came amid news that a major downturn in house construction, a major source of revenue to the city, has produced a projected $4-million shortfall in the city’s budget. However, city officials said they would cut other costs to cover that.

In voting against the project, Hamm warned that the worsening economy and the availability of other theater opportunities demanded other uses for the city’s funds. Ledford, meanwhile, argued that renovating the Maryott would be cheaper and better serve the city’s downtown revitalization efforts.

In 1984, the city started out with the promise of a $750,000 commitment to help renovate the Maryott into a theater. That effort stalled until last year when the city settled on an $8-million, 700-seat theater on Ordin’s land. But cost concerns prompted the switch to the latest, smaller projects.