Hemet Council Approves Purchase Of Properties For Theater Expansion

The Hemet City Council last week unanimously approved the purchase of two properties adjacent to the Historic Hemet Theatre to allow for its expansion.

“The city was approached by the Hemet Theatre earlier this year and learned about expansion plans that they have for the theater,” City Manager Mark Prestwich said. “The concept is to almost double the number of seats inside the theater.”

To the west of the theater is a parcel of land with an occupied building on it, and to the east is a vacant lot. The asking price for the lot with the building is $1.5 million, roughly $45,000 less than the appraised value, and the asking price for the vacant lot is $350,000, roughly $160,000 more than the parcel’s appraised value.

“I have some concerns about paying above the appraised value,” Councilmember Carole Kendrick said. “I don’t know how I could look a constituent in the face, saying I authorized payment of more than what a property is appraised for, so I have concerns with that.”

According to City Attorney Steven Graham Pacifico, the city would be well within its legal rights to approve the purchase of the property at the asking price instead of the appraised value, though he noted potential political concerns do exist.

“I don’t see this as a legal problem, potentially it could be viewed as a political issue,” he said. “You know, the city does not have infinite resources, it has to make choices on where it’s going to invest those limited funds.”

One way Graham Pacifico said the city could address the issue was through a development agreement with the theater to offset the cost to the city of the vacant lot, an idea that Vice President Andrew Kotyuk said the organization was open to in order to get the project off the ground.

“It’s just what works the best for the city to assist us to really make this happen quickly,” he said. “We can do this as a nonprofit charity in our own private partnership, but, as we know, that can take five to 10 years. 

“If it’s a private public partnership with you, we can escalate that to three to five years to move much faster and quicker,” he continued. “So I think that’s kind of where that discussion came from, is how do we work together in this situation to do that. We’re happy to help close the gap.”

For Mayor Joe Males, the success other cities like Pasadena and Indio have had by participating in public private partnerships to revitalize their downtown areas made it worth looking at how to make this project happen.

“I want that to happen here, and I really think that you’ll be able to do that,” he said. “I see the passion you both have in that theater and wanting to make it work, and that I would want us to be a part of that, too.”

While plans for the expansion were not presented during the meeting, Kotyuk said it was his hope that the final design would be a collaborative effort with the city and the community at large.

“This asset isn’t ours, this is the community’s,” he said. “So we would want everyone’s fingerprints beyond what we’ve talked about preserving certain historical aspects of it as well.”

The council ultimately voted to move forward with the purchase of the buildings with the understanding that staff would come back at the council’s next meeting with a commitment from the theater to fund the difference between the appraised value and asking price of the vacant lot.

In other council action: The Hemet City Council paid tribute to Billie Anne Goff, a long-time educator for Hemet Unified School District, who died May 13. 

A full recording of the meeting can be found here on the city’s YouTube channel.

Correction: A previous version of this story said the Hemet City Council had approved the purchase of buildings, but only one of the lots approved for purchase has a building on it as noted in the story.