Panel Urges Modest Plan to Renovate Alex Theatre : Entertainment: Citizens committee says fixing up the historic facility could cost no more than $4 million and be finished within 18 months.

The historic Alex Theatre could be renovated within 18 months at a cost of no more than $4 million, the chairman of a citizens advisory committee told the Glendale Redevelopment Agency.

The estimates are far more conservative than some earlier proposals that called for elaborate renovation, expansion or rebuilding of the theater that could take years to complete and cost up to $15 million.

Instead, the committee on Tuesday proposed a modest renovation of the existing facility, built in 1925, that would allow it to be used for a range of events, including dance and stage productions, private and corporate functions, movie filming and organ concerts.

“We want to get moving with the project,” said Larry Clarke, chairman of the Committee for Arts at the Alex.

Clarke said the committee has agreed that a “realistic rehabilitation scheme” to renovate the existing house with some modifications while preserving the neo-Greek architecture is the only financially feasible alternative. The work could be completed within a year to 18 months after acquisition of the theater, he said.

He called the Alex “a modest venue which could serve the needs of the community.” Efforts to turn it into a first-class performing arts center, as had been proposed in the past, would take too much time and money and would “very likely impair the project,” Clarke said.

“The Alex was not and is not a first-class performing arts center,” he said. “It is not the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.”

The 21-member volunteer task force appointed by the city in January comprises representatives of diverse interests who frequently squabbled with one another in the past over the fate of the theater. Their recommendation marks the first time after a decade of studies, delays and controversy that all interests appear to have reached a unified voice.

David Smith of the Alex Theatre Revitalization Project, a private group that launched a concerted effort last fall to save the Alex, is a member of the city-appointed committee. He said that while the committee “represents a lot of different viewpoints, everybody seems to have come to a consensus. We are accepting the Alex for what it is and trying to make it work really well without spending a lot of money.”

The redevelopment agency on Tuesday authorized the committee to hire an architectural team to develop conceptual plans, a potential time schedule and estimated costs of the renovation project. The agency in December set aside $500,000 for initial planning.

The committee has also been authorized to hire engineers to conduct structural, environmental and fire safety surveys to determine the extent and type of repairs needed. Results of the surveys can be used to determine the value of the historical building, which the agency is negotiating to purchase from Mann Theatres.

The city in January purchased the Fox Lanterman theater pipe organ from La Canada Flintridge and plans to install it in the renovated Alex. The organ has since been moved from the estate of the late Assemblyman Frank Lanterman to a storage facility in Glendale where it is being renovated.