05/26/2006

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
The State Theatre in downtown Traverse City, reflected in the window of Mr. Bill's Shirt Company along with Dan Kelchak, could soon be acquired by the Traverse City Film Festival.

Festival may have found a home

Group is close to acquiring the State Theatre

by bill o'brien

bobrien@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
The State Theatre in downtown Traverse City could soon be acquired by the Traverse City Film Festival.

TRAVERSE CITY — The Traverse City Film Festival may have a home of its own when it returns for its second season this summer.

The fledgling, highly successful Film Festival is close to acquiring the State Theatre on East Front Street from Rotary Charities of Traverse City.

The parties will meet in Traverse City today and hope to finalize a deal to turn over the long-shuttered downtown theater to the nonprofit festival.

A partial lineup of films, dates and other highlights for this year's festival also will be announced today by its founder, Oscar-winning filmmaker and Michigan native Michael Moore.

"We are in negotiations right now with Rotary Charities, and things are going well," Moore said.

A Rotary official said the Rotary Charities board may have a proposal on which to vote when it meets June 2.

"I'm hoping we're real close," said Marsha Smith, Rotary Charities' executive director. "Our goal has always been to get the lights on downtown and get the State Theatre open and operating."

The festival wants to obtain the building at little or no cost. Moore said the group wants its resources used to build the event.

"We are unable to buy it because we need to raise money to put on the festival, and our mission is to put on the festival," Moore said. "Our hope is that we would not have to raise money to buy it, but that Rotary Charities would make a contribution."

The defunct State Theatre Group turned over the property to Rotary Charities in November, the end of a failed, 10-year effort to raise money to renovate the building into a $6.9 million performing arts center.

The project was bogged down at times over the years due to a lawsuit between the State Theatre Group and the building's former owner, the late Barry Cole.

Rotary Charities held two liens on the building through grants it provided for the State Theatre Group's renovation project. The failed renovation group also had received a $250,000 state grant and $100,000 from the Frey Foundation.

The State Theatre Group's collapse last year came soon after the Interlochen Center for the Arts pulled out of the project. The two organizations formed a partnership more than two years ago in hopes of upgrading the theater into a venue for live performances. But Interlochen withdrew when funding didn't materialize.

Smith said any deal with the Film Festival won't include the former Kurtz Music building on the east side of the theater, most recently the home of the Bravo! gift store run by Interlochen. Rotary bought the building from Acme businessman Dick Smith.

Marsha Smith said Rotary Charities will seek offers on the former Kurtz building, and she's confident it can be sold in short order.

"We already have a list of people who have contacted us to express their interest," she said.

Rotary recently had both buildings appraised, but she declined to discuss the estimated value of either property.

The theater is the site of the downtown's original movie house, built in 1918 and rebuilt in 1923 after a fire. It showed the first talking movie seen in northern Michigan in 1929, when it was known as the Lyric Theatre. Another fire gutted the structure in early 1948, and it reopened as the State Theatre in June 1949. It operated until the mid-1990s.