350 Park St, Moraga
At a packed and occasionally boisterous informational meeting on the impending closure of the Rheem Theatre in Moraga on Saturday, the operator of the theater, Derek Zemrak, provided the lowdown on the lack of support from Moraga throughout the years culminating in the approval of a controversial historic preservation law in February that, “helps enable preservation of buildings or other specific objects “linked” to Moraga’s past that are at least 50 years old, in most cases” and doesn’t require approval from the property owner.
Some examples of the lack of support from the town that the operator mentioned:
- Only one town council member is current California Independent Film Festival (CAIFF) member
- $60,000 relief for basketball game in theater cancelled with no response from town
- No town officials present at Classic Film Hall of Fame inaugural event
- Town officials generally not present at other popular events such as SciFi Day
- Town passed historical preservation ordinance despite request not to
You may be wondering, as I did, why the Rheem Theatre operator is opposed to a law that mandates the preservation of Rheem Theatre. Apparently, the owner of the property, Mahesh Puri, who rented the theater at below market rates, in this case, $5,000 per month for several years, is not pleased about the new law which will lower the value of the property and decided to no longer subsidize the rent for the Rheem Theatre. Had the historical preservation ordinance not been passed it would be likely that the $5,000 rent (or a reasonable 10-15% increase) would have been maintained, thus allowing the Rheem Theatre to continue operations.
Imagine that the historical preservation ordinance is revoked at the June 10th town council meeting. In response, the property owner lowers the monthly rent back down to $5,000. What is the likelihood that 5 or 10 years down the road the property gets sold and the theater is demolished to make room for condos or new stores like what happened to the Pleasant Hill Dome theater?
Can Moraga buy the property and run it as a non-profit? What do you think should be done?
