City Will Pay $650,000 for Alex Theatre

The Glendale Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday agreed to buy the historic Alex Theatre from Mann Theatres Corp. of California for $650,000.

The agreement, to be signed next week, marks the end of months of negotiations by the city to acquire the 67-year-old movie house at 216 N. Brand Blvd., which the city plans to convert into a performing arts center.

Another $6.2 million is expected to be allocated for the renovation project in next year’s budget, said Derrill Quaschnick, assistant redevelopment director.

The city last year paid $185,000 to buy property in front of the theater from a local church. The front portion of the property, developed in 1940, includes an ornate marquee, box office, 100-foot high neon spire and a canopy roof that leads to the theater doors.

Mann owns the rear portion of the property, where the theater, with its distinguished neo-Greek architecture, was built in 1925. The cavernous movie house, the largest single-screen theater in Glendale, was closed last September by Mann, which operates a new eight-screen cinema two blocks south in The Exchange.

Funds for the Alex purchase and conversion are from $65 million in tax allocation bonds sold by the agency in 1990, said Brian Butler, city finance director. The debt on the bonds is being repaid with taxes earned by the city from increased property values in the downtown redevelopment zone. This year, for instance, the city expects to earn $10.3 million in so-called increment taxes, which increase yearly.

The City Council, which also serves as the Redevelopment Agency’s board, on Tuesday approved bylaws and articles of incorporation for a nine-member nonprofit organization to oversee the theater’s operation and raise funds for it.

Laurence R. Clarke, chairman of the new board, has said that renovation of the theater could be completed within 18 months. City officials hope to complete designs next month.