Tower Theatre once a go-to venue for Fresno community. Will appeal return with city ownership?

When the city of Fresno this summer finalized its deal to buy the Tower Theatre, it marked the end of more than a year of contentious lawsuits, community debate and protests about usage and zoning of the Tower District landmark.

And while the $6.5 million deal brings the iconic theater under the city’s control, there are lingering questions about its operation and whether longtime community and arts events will return to the space.

Fresno Filmworks screened its last film at the Tower Theatre in March 2020, just before the start of the pandemic. By the following year, the theater was in the midst of the controversy over its ownership and several longtime community arts groups, including Fresno Filmworks, had pulled their support.

“While the Tower District continues to have great spiritual value to many in the community, we will not continue to support the Tower Theatre under its current management structure,” the group wrote at the time, in a joint statement with the ReelPride LGTBQ+ Film Festival.

“We will look elsewhere for venues to support our respective film festivals as long as the situation remains unresolved.”

And they did.

ReelPride landed at Fresno City College, where ReelPride hosted its 2021 festival and returned for this year’s festival last weekend.

Fresno Filmworks took a hiatus from its monthly screenings and just last month announced it would be returning with a new monthly movie night concept called Cinemelt, in partnership with Goldstein’s Mortuary and Delicatessen. The free movie series kicked off Sept. 28 with the 1980s Indonesian horror film “The Queen of Black Magic.”

“It’s being part of the community again and introducing independent film to new viewers,” said Filmworks president Benjamin Woodcock.

In an ideal world, Fresno Filmworks would certainly return to the Tower Theatre, now that the venue is under new ownership.

But ownership isn’t the only issue.

First, the audience has been dwindling over the years. People aren’t coming out for independent films now, said Rita Bell, a past Filmworks president and board member.

Add to that, many distributors are moving away from BlueRay projectors like the kind used by the theater, making it difficult to even secure the kind of first-run movies that Filmworks has historically shown.

Logistically that could all be figured out, but there are also questions about the quality of the screen itself and also the theater’s sound equipment, and whether the city can or will make any needed upgrades.

So while the group would love to return to the Tower Theatre, even at half-capacity, “that’s probably fantasy land at this point,” Bell said.

A new operator?

For its part, the Fresno City Council in August passed an amendment to the master fee schedule that includes the theater, and the city is working on a facility use policy that will be posted to the PARCS website soon. It has also done a high-level health and safety evaluation of the theater and deemed the major systems operational, according to director of communications Sontaya Rose.

But the city has not issued a request for proposal to find a new operator or manager for the theater.

That is in the works for the coming weeks, Rose said.

In the meantime, the theater’s former owner, Laurence Abbate, will continue as interim operator.

Interested parties will have two to four weeks to respond to the city’s RFP, as is typical for the process, Rose said. The responses will be evaluated and a recommendation will be made to the city council.

The total time frame could take 60 to 90 days once the request has been issued, Rose said.

Augie Blancas, the communication director for Fresno ReelPride, said the group is happy that the sale happened and is eager to have conversations with whomever the city chooses to manager the theater.

“We called Tower Theatre home for more than 10 years. ReelPride and the Tower Theatre go hand and hand in my eye,” he said.

Whether the festival returns to the theater or not will likely come down to its budget. While the current fee schedule does provide a discount for nonprofits, Blancas hopes that the rental rates for the theater and for its adjoining spaces will be negotiable, especially for those who “might not have the biggest pocketbooks.”

That sentiment was seconded by organizers or Fresno’s Rogue Festival, which had used the Tower Theater for its kick-off parties (and backdrop) for several years.

Nonprofit control?

“Right now, our main concern is that the Tower Theatre remain accessible to the local arts community,” said Rogue Festival president Jaguar Bennett.

He sees the issue as twofold.

One, the theater should remain primarily dedicated to the performing arts.

“It would be a tremendous blow to all of Fresno if the Tower Theatre is allowed to become a community center that is mostly used for non-arts events,” he said.

Two, the rental fees should remain within reach of local and independent producers.

“Many local arts groups that used to rent the Saroyan Theatre tell me that the Saroyan is now completely out of their price range,” Bennett said.

That theater is managed by ASM Global under contract with the city. The company also operates the Save Mart Center.

One idea being floated among arts groups would be to have a nonprofit organization run the theater, with input from the arts community, perhaps through representation on an arts oversight board. To that end, Bennett helped put together a shareholders meeting with the Fresno Arts Council and members of community arts organizations, including the Rogue Festival.

The council doesn’t have any innate interest in running the theater, said Arts Council Executive Director Lilia Gonzales-Chavez. Thee council would rather serve in a support capacity, if needed.

But whoever does operate the theater needs to have an awareness of the needs of Fresno’s arts community and the council might be willing to step into the role, “if no one else steps up that has that perspective,” Gonzales-Chavez said. It will have to look at the city’s request for proposal once it is released, she said.

The consensus she has heard among community arts groups is that they would rather not have an outside professional management company that is going to be focused on just making a profit.

“We have a unique opportunity with the Tower Theatre,” Gonzales-Chavez said, “to have a community-focused venue.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2022 at 5:30 AM.