PORT ANGELES — Dan Gase, the real estate agent in the process of brokering the sale of the shuttered Lincoln Theater, was in a sunny mood at a meeting with city officials.
“I thought I’d run to Swain’s and get popcorn,” Gase quipped at the movie house Thursday.
Joining him there: would-be theater buyer Scott Nagel, architect Michael Gentry, Port Angeles city building inspector Jim Lierly and city Fire Chief Ken Dubuc.
Last month, Nagel, producer of the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival in Port Angeles and the former director of the Seattle Folklife Festival and Sequim Lavender Festival, made his move to buy the theater, which has been dark since last spring.
Nagel offered Sun Basin Theatres, the Lincoln’s owner, $235,000, and now “he’s the buyer in first position,” Gase said.
But Nagel has no plans to buy the Lincoln with his own money.
He intends to instead find large donors who share his vision: restoring the Lincoln building at 132 E. First St. into a 500-seat film and performing arts center.
Once it’s been purchased, Nagel will embark on renovating the 98-year-old building.
He plans to take out the walls between the two downstairs screening rooms to make one big auditorium, construct a 34-foot-by-25-foot stage — installing a full-size retractable movie screen — put in handicap-accessible bathrooms and make the whole place safe for audiences.
Dubuc was clear about his fire-exit priorities.
“The balcony is the issue for me,” he said.
“If there’s a fire in the popcorn machine, all of the smoke is going to go up,” and people will come rushing down.
“I have what I call my 95-year-old grandmother rule,” Dubuc said. It stipulates that such an elderly patron, wherever she is seated, can easily make it out of the theater.
There are many ways to put in an effective fire exit, the chief said, adding that he sees no other problems with the movie house.
Lierly, for his part, had only enthusiasm to add.
“You’re in a lot better shape than you’d think,” he told Nagel and Gentry. He was interested, though, in how the heating and ventilation system might be upgraded.
The Lincoln’s monthly utility costs were significant: The bill went from $1,006 in October 2013 to $2,086 in February 2014, its last full month of operation.
If and when the theater reopens, a lot of warm bodies in there will help, Nagel noted.
During the next few weeks, he’ll draw up the budget for a makeover. He’ll also continue meeting with potential backers of the place, whose working title is the Port Angeles Performing Arts Center.
The Lincoln could be renamed after a major donor, Nagel has said, or if the benefactors don’t want that, he’ll look for input from the community.
Nagel’s plan also calls for turning the Lincoln into a nonprofit organization.
While he will apply for 501(c)(3) status, it could first become part of the nonprofit Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts, provided the board of directors votes for that.
Nagel has given the foundation board and executive director Dan Maguire an overview of his plan for a performing arts center, but no vote will occur until he provides more details about finances and liability.
Those details are forthcoming along with the renovation budget, Nagel has said.
Meantime, the words “Building for sale” will stay on the Lincoln marquee, along with Gase’s phone number.
If Nagel doesn’t find the funding by late February, another would-be buyer could make an offer, Gase said.
But he’s optimistic about Nagel’s plan and added that if and when the deal is done, he’ll put “Congratulations” up there in lights.
Nagel is already thinking about movies, concerts, plays, corporate parties and other festivity in a reopened theater.
During Thursday’s meeting, he talked with Gase and Lierly about film festivals, theme movie nights and even the Metropolitan Opera, which is broadcast live to movie theaters from New York City.
Port Townsend’s Rose Theatre already screens the opera, along with its cinematic fare.
To revive the Lincoln, Gase said, “a little imagination is all it takes . . . and that little thing called money.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
