PORT ANGELES — The shuttered Lincoln Theater has been taken off the market after a purchase offer was made to its Wenatchee-based owner — an offer that is not from the Port Angeles Theatre Project.
The identity of the potential buyer or buyers, and the fate of the 100-year-old central downtown landmark that was closed in March 2014, remained a mystery Thursday afternoon.
“I’m sure there will be a press release, and we will have some more information coming out soon,” said Bryan Cook, Sun Basin Theatres’ general manager, in a brief telephone interview Thursday from his Wenatchee office.
Cook would not comment further, calling it a sensitive time in the sale negotiations for the potential new owner of the 132 E. First St. landmark.
Cook left a voice mail earlier Thursday answering a Peninsula Daily News inquiry about the possible sale.
“Perhaps in a week or so, maybe the new owners might have a press release for you,” Cook said.
Scott Nagel, executive director of the Port Angeles Theatre Project and co-founder with Karen Powell of the Light Up the Lincoln campaign, said: “We started this as a nonprofit venture. We always knew there would be a risk that somebody else would buy it.
“I’m hopeful the new owner will be someone we can work with.”
The nonprofit Port Angeles Theatre Project has raised between $79,000 and $80,000 in its Light Up the Lincoln campaign to purchase the 480-seat theater for concerts and other community productions, board of directors President Matthew Rainwater said Thursday.
The $70,000 in pledges that were fulfilled as of the end of January came from more than 100 donors.
“Everyone who has donated toward the purchase of the building, they are going to get 100 percent of their money,” Rainwater said.
“That will happen as soon as the sale goes through.”
Rainwater said he received word of an impending sale from an email that had circulated Tuesday among several Port Angeles residents and that he had called Cook on Wednesday for further information.
“All he would tell me is that it’s not sold but under contract,” Rainwater said.
“He entered into negotiations with someone and has taken it off the market.”
Rainwater said Cook would not say if the buyer or buyers were local, whether earnest money was put down on the 10,031-square-foot structure or its fate.
“His main focus was to get the building sold,” Rainwater said.
“Our main goal is to get this thing running and have some benefit to the town.
“I am eternally hopeful.”
Rainwater said another group in Port Angeles that he would not identify has been interested in purchasing the theater.
“We reached out to them [Wednesday],” Rainwater said.
“We let them know if the sale does not go through that it’s time for us to come together instead of having competing interests, which shut each other down, to hopefully work together for the good of the community.”
He said it was “a shame” that the groups had not gotten together before now and said he did not know why that had not occurred.
“Our goal really was to hopefully revitalize this town or have the Lincoln be a linchpin, a cornerstone to bring businesses downtown,” Rainwater said.
“Now we have an unnamed person, and we are hoping and praying that they have a vision that we can work together [on].”
Several groups
Mark Cole, former owner of the Upstage Restaurant and Bistro in Port Townsend, said that “three or four groups are interested in the Lincoln, and I have offered my assistance to all of them.”
“I have been advising people about the Lincoln Theater since before I moved to Port Angeles” in 2015.
He said the seller, Sun Basin Theatres, confirmed to him that the building was no longer on the market and “I shared that news Monday with Jerry Stewart and Matthew Rainwater of Port Angeles Theatre Project of the Light Up The Lincoln effort,” Cole said in an email.
“I hope, as others, that the buyer or person who has placed an offer on the Lincoln has like vision and mission for the Lincoln’s downtown role.”
Cook said earlier this year that the building was listed at $259,000 before it was under a now-expired contract for $235,000 with the Theatre Project.
Organizers bent on buying and bringing to life the movie house had fallen $42,000 short of reaching their Jan. 31 fundraising goal of $112,000.
Initially, they had hoped to raise $185,000 toward purchasing the theater by that date.
In 2015, the Clallam County Assessor’s Office appraised the 10,031-square-foot building and land at $230,901.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Executive Editor Leah Leach contributed to this report.
