Coach House Owner Loses Pasadena Venue on Default : Foreclosure: But he says this is just a temporary setback and won’t affect his San Juan Capistrano club.

Gary Folgner of Dana Point, who owns the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and the Ventura Theatre in Ventura, has defaulted on a loan he took out last year to purchase the Raymond Theatre here.

“All of a sudden, the payments stopped coming,” said developer Gary Buchanan, who took the theater back from Folgner two weeks ago. “Instead of going through all the procedures of foreclosure, Folgner decided to go ahead and give (the theater) back to us.”

But Folgner and others said the foreclosure was just a temporary setback in their plans to turn the venerable hall at 129 N. Raymond Ave. into a major performance venue.

“Everything’s on hold until we get some details worked out,” Folgner said.

He and Buchanan are scheduled to talk about refinancing the $2.5-million purchase deal, or bringing in new investors to keep the Raymond from going dark. Folgner said he expects to know by Friday whether a new financial proposal would be acceptable that would allow him to keep control of the Raymond.

Folgner said Tuesday that the Coach House and the Ventura Theatre are not in jeopardy despite Raymond-related losses that he estimates to be $400,000 to $500,000. “That is money that already has been lost. They’re not bills I (still) have to pay,” Folgner said.

Folgner reopened the Raymond last November after it had been closed for four years and spent about $400,000 renovating the theater, which had become dilapidated after years of abandonment.

But a month after it reopened--and a few days before a sold-out concert by Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir--the Pasadena Fire Department closed the theater for failure to meet fire safety regulations, asserting that fabric used to upholster the 1,910 seats had not been treated with a fire retardant.

In a lawsuit he filed against the upholstery supplier, Folgner said the shutdown cost him money because of the cancellation of six scheduled concerts, loss of profits from other events, and the expense of reupholstering.

“He never recovered from it,” said Folgner’s attorney, Jeffrey Benice. “He was always down hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the loss.”

Folgner said the faltering economy has also contributed to his problems. “This is an industry that’s on its butt right now,” he said.