District Scuttles Plans for Movie Theater at Watts Campus

A long-anticipated plan to convert a school auditorium into Watts’ only movie theater has suffered a serious setback because Los Angeles Unified School District officials canceled the auditorium lease, alleging that the project was too far behind schedule.

The theater, which had funding from the city of Los Angeles and several major corporations, including PepsiCo. and the Walt Disney Co., was expected to show first-run films in a state-of-the-art theater seating 650 people starting in December.

Supporters announced Tuesday that they have been offered city-owned land near the Metro Blue Line station in Watts on which to build a theater, rather than convert the auditorium. But they must now come up with $5 million in construction costs above the $2.5 million already raised for the conversion project.

For nearly 35 years, Watts residents have had to travel up to seven miles to see movies in Hawthorne or South Gate or at theaters near the USC campus. Because of the latest snafu, Watts residents are going to have to wait even longer for anything closer.

Barbara Stanton, the executive director of the Watts Cinema and Education Center and the key proponent of the proposed Wattstar Theater, said she was shocked that the school district canceled the 15-year lease at the Markham Middle School auditorium in June.

But she is optimistic about raising the money and opening a thoroughly new theater in two years.

Ramon Cortines, the former interim superintendent of the Los Angeles school district, wrote Stanton in May, notifying her that the district was canceling the lease because construction had not started as of Oct. 1, 1999, as the lease required.

In his May 5 letter, he also charged that Stanton had failed to submit plans for an education component to the project and for security.

The district is also evicting Stanton from an office she has used for years at the middle school.

Susan Azad, an attorney representing the Watts Cinema and Education Center, wrote to the district June 29, 1999, arguing that Stanton had not violated the construction deadline because the district had moved it back to Dec. 15, 2000.

Azad also said that Stanton’s group had submitted an education plan and a parking, fencing and security proposal that was approved by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Stanton’s group has already spent more than $300,000 on architectural drawings and other pre-development costs and Azad insists that the district must reimburse her for the lost money.

Stanton said the renovation plans were close to being finalized by state architects.

In an interview, a district spokeswoman said that the lease agreement was never amended to postpone the deadline and that the district did not receive an educational plan for the project.

After weeks of trying to resolve the dispute with the district, Stanton said she was approached by Los Angeles Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., who offered a 1.66-acre parcel for the theater within a redevelopment area known as the Cultural Crescent, next to the Metro Blue Line station at 103rd Street and Graham Avenue. The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency has for years been trying to get developers to build on a 10-acre city-owned parcel between the station and the Watts Towers.

“It’s a natural,” Svorinich said about the new location. “It makes sense and we already own the property.”

“While I’m disappointed that the school district chose not to support the project at the Markham site, I’m optimistic that we can have a fine project at the Cultural Crescent site,” Svorinich said.

Stanton and other supporters of the project say that the new location may be a vast improvement over the school auditorium--if they can come up with the additional $5 million. At the converted school auditorium, movies were to be shown only on weekends and after classes. At the Cultural Crescent site, Stanton hopes to build a two-screen theater that can show first-run movies during the day and evening.

“We will have a brand-new building and the latitude to move forward for the community,” she said.

The theater has a potentially large market because nearly 1 million people live within five miles of the theater site.

After the 1965 riots, the only movie theater in Watts, a Largo theater on 103rd Street near Compton Avenue, closed. Soon after, then-Councilman Tom Bradley persuaded Bruce Corwin, the president of Metropolitan Theaters Co., to open a theater in the Markham auditorium. But the venture ended after a few months, apparently due to the high cost of insurance, utilities and rent.