Fight over Fresno’s Tower Theatre continues. Opponents of sale to church file appeal
An attorney for Fresno’s Sequoia Brewery filed a writ Friday to a higher state court in an attempt to halt the controversial sale of Tower Theatre, which got the go-ahead a week ago.
Sequoia Brewing owners J&A Mash and Barrel filed a complaint in February through an attorney to ask the Fresno County Superior Court to stop the sale of the 81-year-old Tower Theatre and other properties to Adventure Community Church.
Judge Rosemary T. McGuire denied the injunction on March 18, according to Kimberly Mayhew, the attorney representing Sequoia.
Mayhew said she filed the writ to the state Fifth District Court of Appeal. The sale of the theater is set to go through on Wednesday.
A writ is similar to an appeal but is filed because of the urgent time frame of the issue in question, she said.
“We are confident the appellate court will take up the issues of the improper expungement of the lis pendens and the erroneous interpretation of the right of first refusal,” Mayhew said in a statement.
The attorney for Sequoia has argued the restaurant and bar’s lease requires the owners be notified at least 12 days before the theater and its surrounding structures are up for sale. They should also be offered the right of first refusal of the sale and to purchase their building, the complaint said.
Theater owner Laurence Abbate offered to sell the Sequoia piece of the larger property to the owners for about $1.2 million, according to his attorney, Dave Camenson. He was not immediately available for comment on Friday.
Sequoia’s attorney argued in court that they needed to see the appraisal of the whole property before they could decide if that price was fair. In her ruling, McGuire wrote that Sequoia’s attorney did not show evidence that the price was unfair nor that the Sequoia’s owners had the means to buy the property.
The building’s potential sale to Adventure Community Church was met with skepticism and ire after the deal became public knowledge in January. The church informed the Tower Theatre’s owner they were interested in buying the property on Dec. 7, according to court records.
The theater has been the site of competing protests every Sunday for at least two months.
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 5:53 PM.
