Conor Donnelly asks fellow Northeasters about the status of the Hollywood Theater. Conor's timing was very good as recent news has come up just last night.
Let me begin by stating that not only am I a Northeaster, I am also President of Audubon Neighborhood Association. ANA has been working on a long and windy road towards renovation of this gem in NE. With that said, let me tell you some history, recent events as they pertain, and hopeful future. Approximately three years ago, the MCDA sent out RFP's for redevelopment of the theater. Five proposals came in and two were found to be viable. Of those two, both made a presentation to the General Membership of Audubon Neighborhood Association (ANA). With that presentation, ANA gave its endorsement to Ed Finley and his small company, Fun-And-A-Half Productions. Ed has proposed restoring the theater as a live theater doing "new vaudeville" type shows (I believe this is a correct explanation, Ed can give you every last detail). The last three years, however, have been a rocky path towards moving this forward. The MCDA did not initially support Ed's project and the sentiment initially was that the MCDA was giving Ed the run-around. Over the last year, however, the MCDA has seemed to have come around. Yet, the previous behavior by the MCDA put an immense amount of distrust in Ed's mind. This led to a situation of Ed and the MCDA being at a stalemate and little happening. I should mention that ANA's role in this, besides general concern is initially $140,000 of NRP funds towards the project. As such, we've been anticipating progress and waiting for such. On Sept. 25th of this year, the ANA Board held a special meeting for Ed. At this meeting, Ed requested additional NRP funds. His logic was that we could take funds allocated for Johnson Street improvement (which the Hollywood, of course, is on) and dedicate those to the theater. This would allow Ed to pursue private financing, as opposed to financing through the MCDA. After discussion, the ANA Board allocated $150,000 of additional funds to the Hollywood. However, Council Member Paul Ostrow and the Board agreed that we needed to move forward on this within 30 days. Well, Oct. 25th came and went. During this time, Steve Cramer of the MCDA contacted ANA and expressed concerns about Ed's significant amount of paperwork needing to still be submitted. At the November Board meeting, a tense discussion was held with Ed Finley, Steve Cramer and Sharrin Miller-Bossi, Paul Ostrow's aide Catherine Geisen-Kisch, and the ANA Board. The meeting ended with Ed having one last month to show "significant progress" towards moving the project forward or else the Board would vote to recommend to the General Membership that other development options be explored. The Board met last night. I am pleased to inform all who might be concerned that Ed Finley demonstrated he is indeed a showman and brought most of the paperwork needed by the MCDA to move forward. He is a showman as until last night, he let on very little that he had this paperwork and I suspect he wanted to make sure there was a big splash. MCDA staff do need to review this paperwork and there is still some paperwork to be completed. These items should happen over the next two weeks. If all goes well in these areas, I suspect a development contract could be worked out between Ed Finley and the MCDA and MCDA staff could take it before the Council relatively soon. If all of this goes well, construction could begin this summer. I must admit that until last night, I was not hopeful that Ed Finley would be able to make this project happen. However, while there is still work to be done before bricks and concrete are moved and shows are performed, I am now newly hopeful. We will see over the next few weeks if the remaining paperwork and obstacles will be overcome. At this point, it will be a great disappointment if it is not. If anyone is interested in more information, I suggested sending an email to either myself or Audubon Neighborhood Association's office at [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you send email to ANA's office, please have pity on our staff person if she doesn't respond right away. She's an excellent staff person but very busy. Thanks for everyone's time. One way or another, ANA is looking forward to a new Hollywood Theater in Northeast Minneapolis! Gary Bowman Writing as President of Audubon Neighborhood Association Living in 1-1 --------------------------------------------------- Get your free web based email from Crosswalk.com: http://mail.crosswalk.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
