L.A. Council Votes 11-2 to Purchase Stage Center : Theater: Los Angeles Theatre Center promises not to request future city subsidies.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday, by a surprisingly lopsided margin of 11-2, to buy Los Angeles Theatre Center.

But last minute negotiations yielded a written promise from the LATC production company not to make future requests for any city subsidies for building maintenance, beyond a transitional sum of $750,000 included in the package that passed.

The building, at 514 S. Spring St., will cost the city as much as $5.25 million, on top of $21 million of city funds already invested since 1982--when it was conceived as the anchor of an attempt to revive its east downtown neighborhood.

The money will buy Los Angeles its first municipal theater complex.

Arts groups other than the current LATC production company will use 30% of the available stage time. And if the LATC production company can’t pay its bills, the city could replace it with other groups, or lease it out to commercial producers, or sell it.

Because some council members doubt LATC’s ability to come up with between $3 million and $4 million a year--for programming as well as building maintenance costs--a written pledge from LATC will be added to the lease agreement, guaranteeing that the theater won’t ask for more money. Council members Joel Wachs and Zev Yaroslavsky insisted on the addendum after a joint meeting of two council committees Tuesday.

Yaroslavsky and Ernani Bernardi cast the only votes against the purchase. Councilwoman Ruth Galanter was not present.

Another last-minute addendum to the proposal makes the purchase subject to the council’s “satisfaction with the resolution of tax issues” that were raised by one of the limited partners, Robert Silberman, in the group that currently owns the building. Silberman told committee members that the agreement would create tax problems for the partners.

The vote indicated a growth in council support for LATC since October, when five members voted against an interim LATC funding request.

“I’ve never received so much pressure from special interests,” said Councilman Nate Holden, one of those who voted against the interim funding last fall.

Later, after council members Joy Picus and Hal Bernson criticized making LATC promise not to return to the city for more money, Holden warned that if they were suggesting later modifications of the agreement, “we ought to kill (the purchase proposal) right now.” However, he finally voted for it.

Actors Rita Moreno, David Selby and George Takei addressed the council on LATC’s behalf.