Raising the Curtain

Re-energizing its long-stalled expansion plans, the Laguna Playhouse has entered into a “handshake agreement” to purchase a next-door office complex and has sold the South Laguna property originally pegged for the project, officials announced Tuesday.

The agreement is being finalized now, and escrow is expected to open by Friday on the three-building, 34,000-square-foot complex known as 580 Broadway (formerly “The Colony”). The site is three times the size of the South Laguna venue, the former Bank of America branch the playhouse sold Friday.

The new complex would house a smaller second theater principally to accommodate its Youth Theater productions, and, eventually, a second subscription series of small-scale adult productions and a new-play development program.

“The playhouse has always looked enviously at that particular property, but the owners have never been willing to sell it,” said executive director Richard Stein. “With all the wonderful restaurants and the beach within walking distance, it’s a far superior location for us to expand into.”

Theater officials hope to close escrow within six months but want to develop design plans before announcing an opening date, project costs or a capital campaign, expected to last a maximum of three years, Stein said. Reconstruction would include connecting the new and existing structures, building the second, 225-seat theater and reconfiguring the current 420-seat Moulton Theater’s entrance, he said.

Plans for a second theater surfaced in the early ‘80s, and in 1987, the playhouse came close to obtaining a downtown Laguna building for the project.

Stein would not disclose the cost of the new site but said the playhouse, which operates on $2.2 million annually, made a hefty profit on the bank building, despite spending $880,000 to buy it in 1994 and roughly $75,000 on reconstruction plans. No physical improvements were made to the building, which the playhouse used for classes and rehearsals.

The organization raised about $800,000 for reconstruction of the South Laguna site, but that capital campaign stalled amid the recession and Orange County’s bankruptcy.

Prospects for a new capital campaign are “excellent,” given the improved economy and a new board with better fund-raising capabilities, Stein said. An expanded playhouse, he added, could accelerate progress on planned improvements to be made by Laguna Beach to its so-called Village Entrance, the half-mile stretch of Laguna Canyon Road leading into downtown, where the playhouse, the Festival of Arts and the Pageant of the Masters grounds as well as other arts venues are located.