Fox Performing Arts Center

charmomder on January 6, 2007 at 9:14 am

RIVERSIDE – Call it the 21st century Fox.

Silvia Flores / The Press-Enterprise
The city of Riverside is converting the Fox Theater, built in 1929, into a 1,600-seat performing arts center. It will be made earthquake- safe and will have an expanded stage and new lighting systems.

The City Council on Tuesday awarded a contract for up to almost $30 million to Santa Ana-based Bayley Construction to design and carry out the renovation of the historic Fox Theater downtown.

The city is converting the structure, built in 1929, into a 1,600-seat performing arts center. It will be made earthquake-safe and will have an expanded stage as well as the latest lighting, sound and video systems. It will be made accessible to the disabled.

The $29.8 million contract calls for Bayley to do the work in 21 months. It includes $22.5 mil- lion for design and construction, $2.3 million for optional additional work and a 20 per-cent contingency fund of almost $5 million.

The city’s hope is that the past will represent downtown’s future.

Officials see the Fox as the centerpiece of their downtown revitalization efforts, which focus on making the city an arts and culture mecca for the Inland region. It is one of the largest projects included in the Riverside Renaissance Initiative, the city’s plan for $785 mil-lion worth of projects in the next five years.

“This is a major, major deal in terms of putting us on the map,” Councilman Dom Betro, whose ward includes downtown, said about the Fox on Monday. “This is our breakthrough.”

A Broadway show producer, the Nederlander Organization, has expressed an interest in bringing its touring productions to the Fox.

Concerts, conventions, graduations and performances by local arts groups are uses the city is considering renting the Fox for, officials said.

But the city does not expect the Fox to be a moneymaker by itself, Assistant City Manager Michael Beck said. Its economic value lies mainly in stimulating spending by its patrons at other locations, such as restaurants and bars, he said.

Plans call for a bank loan to pay for the construction, though the city initially expects to borrow some money from its $275 million cash pool so it can get the work rolling before the loan is in place, Beck said.

The city also hopes to obtain close to $4 million in federal tax credits.

The city ultimately plans to sell off more than $75 million in surplus property to help pay for the Fox and some other Renaissance projects.

La Sierra resident Yolanda Garland criticized the project and its cost, saying it would be better for a private investor to restore the Fox.

Downtown resident Chani Beeman recalled the people who mocked the plans to restore the Mission Inn and said the Fox rehabilitation will pay off for the city.

Demolition of portions of the building and removal of asbestos and other toxic materials will start in January, said Robert Wise, the city’s project manager for the Fox. Construction is likely to being in April, he said.

Dave Kellstrand, director of theater facilities at UC Riverside, said 32 years ago he went on his first date to the Fox with the woman who is now his wife.

The $30 million renovation cost is not out of line, he said, especially considering historic buildings often have unforeseen problems.

“I’d just really like to see it succeed,” Kellstrand said.

Preservation expert Knox Mellon, a Riverside resident, said the Fox is the last historic building in Riverside he expects to need such an expensive overhaul.

“I think it’s going to be a showpiece,” he said.

Reach Doug Haberman at 951-368-9644 or

JinanMontecristo on December 10, 2006 at 6:18 pm

I had recently stopped in Riverside looking for restaurant space and happened to notice the gorgeous Theater. I was mind boggled that it was not in use. Reading everyone’s comments I am more confused as to why this building is still not open to the public? It seems there are plenty of people willing to put in the effort to help open the Theater. What is the hold up?

ododson3 on September 9, 2006 at 8:39 am

I grew up in Riverside from 1952 to 1964 when I left for college. I remember the Fox fondly. Walking from the box-office the 15 feet to the front doors, into the dim curving lobby with deep deep carpets, and then through the doors into the auditorium was intoxicating. But I remember most the huge movie screen. In proportion to the size of the auditorium, the screen was by far the largest I’ve ever seen. Sitting in the lower level, the screen towered over one with what felt like the height of a 5 or 6 story building. The screen was also wide, very wide. It was huge and overwhelming. Projection was excellent with a bright and steady image.

In the renovation, I hope above all else that the screen can be preserved at its full 1960 size.

After that, I would hope to see the thick carpets retained in the lobby, the deep dark lobby ceiling and light fixtures, and the interior as it was. BTW, I visited the Fox in the 80s and the screen and projection were still there as fine as ever, though the theatre was showing only Spanish language films.

Cinecitta on March 18, 2006 at 4:04 am

View link

RIVERSIDE â€" A project design for the long-stalled refurbishment of the historic Fox Theater was approved Tuesday by the Riverside City Council, acting in its capacity as the Redevelopment Agency.
“It’s a wonderful treasure that will unfold itself,” said Councilman Dom Betro. “We are trying to create a modern performing arts center but maintain its historic heritage.”

The unanimous vote followed a discussion with project architect Richard McCann, who has restored about 30 historic theaters, including the Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles and the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle.

McCann and his staff displayed photos and concrete examples of their pre-design work, in which they painstakingly uncovered decorative tiles under stucco, stenciled patterns under layers of paint on kiosk beams and yet more patterns hidden away in closets or behind stage additions.

It’s the first time in decades that much of original interior artwork of the theater, which was built in 1929 in a Mission Revival design, has been exposed.

Some observers sitting in the audience in the Council Chamber gasped with each revelation.

“This must be a labor of love for you,” Councilwoman Nancy Hart told McCann before she voted to approve the design plans.

Mayor Ron Loveridge pushed for a timetable from City Manager Bradley J. Hudson, who said the project could begin as early as this fall with completion by about April 2008.

The 1,600-seat venue is envisioned as Riverside’s premier performing arts center, which would host Broadway-style shows, concert performances and ballets, according to the city’s project manager, Robert Wise.

“The theater will be rehabilitated to its original design but will be enlarged in some areas and have other modifications,” he said.

The city’s downtown area has struggled to develop an historic area with the restored Mission Inn as its centerpiece, despite the city’s investment of more than $122 million in the redevelopment project.

The missing element has been the Fox Theater, which in its heyday was the site of a sneak preview screening of the 1939 Civil War epic “Gone with the Wind.”

By the 1980s, the theater had fallen into disrepair and was showing only Spanish-language films.

The building went through a succession of owners, who promised to return it to its original condition and show first-run movies.

City officials saw a glimmer of hope when Joe Zivnak purchased the theater in 2001 for $1.4 million with an eye toward restoration that never occurred.

The city began eminent domain proceedings to take possession in 2004. Last December, the city settled with Zivnak, purchasing the theater for $2.9 million.

Plans call for keeping the exterior of the theater virtually intact but enlarge the stage area and upgrade the upstairs offices, according to a city report.

“The auditorium will pretty much remain as it is, and the ceiling will remain original with a little touch-up,” Wise said. “But the lobby has been repainted three or four times over. We have had paint experts come and look at the original colors and matched them.”

Theater offices and retail shops that line the theater at Market Street and Mission Inn Avenue would also be restored, Wise said.

The theater is expected to complement the Fox Plaza, a nearby proposed project of 900 condominiums, 200 lofts, a hotel and 800,000 square feet of commercial space.

thedove76 on February 15, 2006 at 10:24 pm

Nice to know the Fox is still there. Hopefully it can be restored and put to good use. I spent a lot of happy times here. Some of my favorite Fox memories include seeing Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” on a night when the theater was giving away posters from the movie. The place was packed that night. I also recall the Fox staging a Beatles film festival where the four movies would run back-to-back. At that time, there was a acoustic guitar store in the complex near the entrance to the adult theater.

BhillH20 on October 22, 2005 at 3:32 pm

Its the same photo as 5 comments up!!

imkealy on June 6, 2005 at 9:06 am

Tell me about the pipe organ
Paul

warhorse on March 11, 2005 at 8:07 pm

I remember changing buses once in Riverside and having time for a movie. I thought this was a beautiful theater. It is sad to see that it has gone the way of many the fine old houses we had here in Chicago. And so many of them are built in the Spanish style.

I have fond memories of my one visit to the Fox.

EugeneDavis on January 3, 2005 at 3:03 pm

From The Los Angeles Times: January 3, 2005

Riverside Sees Arts as Key to a Vital Core
Plans are to create a cultural hot spot to draw from the region’s growing population.
By Seema Mehta
Times Staff Writer

January 3, 2005

When Riverside’s Fox Theater screened the first public showing of “Gone With the Wind” in 1939, the landmark was a glamorous vaudeville stage and cinema, popular with Hollywood luminaries and featuring the rare luxury of air-conditioning.

More than six decades later, the Spanish colonial-style theater is faded and run-down, like the city blocks that surround it.

The city has spent $122 million trying to revitalize its downtown with limited success, leaving a mishmash that includes a four-star hotel within strolling distance of abandoned storefronts.

Now, Riverside leaders are staking downtown’s revival on the creation of a cultural and nightlife hotspot for the booming Inland Empire; a place where people in Riverside and San Bernardino counties can go for a night on the town without driving to Los Angeles or Orange County.

If successful, the lethargic downtown center would be transformed into a lively, urban district with a performing arts center, art galleries, a Broadway-style theater, restaurants and upscale shops.

Before, “the time wasn’t right for Riverside — the population base was too small, the demographics didn’t quite work,“ said Joseph Gogas, the city’s downtown project manager. "But the whole Inland Empire has transformed itself.”

Steven Erie, director of the Urban Studies and Planning Program at UC San Diego, said Riverside’s efforts are similar to what occurred in Orange County in the 1970s and 1980s. The result, the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, helped provide an identity for that onetime bedroom community.

“If [Riverside] can bring a performing arts center in, that will bring people back to the city — to work, to live,“ he said.

There are already signs of life: Workers jam Simple Simon’s cafe on the pedestrian mall every weekday lunch hour, college kids gather at Back to the Grind coffeehouse and at art galleries, and BMW-driving couples nosh at Mario’s Place and other restaurants on weekends.

But intermingled with these bright spots are bail bond offices, pawnshops and dusty tchotchke emporiums. Businesspeople and urban planners say downtown’s prospects depend on whether more residents can be persuaded to dine, shop and play in the city center, and if the city is focused enough to achieve its goal.

There are doubters.

“No one seems to know where downtown is going. There’s a lack of vision,” said Ralph Megna, a consultant who was the city’s redevelopment chief from 1990 to 1997. “The shame of all this is downtown Riverside has enormous potential, but it is going virtually completely unrealized.”

The city’s glory days were nearly a century ago, when it was the favored haunt of polo-playing citrus heirs and Hollywood stars.

Because of its citrus industry, Riverside was once the wealthiest city per-capita in the country, city officials say.

“We were the watering hole for Southern California,” said Mayor Ron Loveridge. “Twenty-first century Riverside is different.”

While Los Angeles rose with the glamour of Hollywood, the citrus industry in the Inland counties waned, leaving Riverside the “back lot of Southern California,” he said. After World War II, downtown’s residents fled to the suburbs. Montgomery Ward, Sears and other businesses abandoned Riverside’s downtown in the 1960s. In 1971, the area was declared a redevelopment zone.

Since then, soaring housing prices along the Southern California coast started an inland migration. Riverside and San Bernardino counties, home to more than 3.7 million people, are expected to top 5 million by 2020.

Eric Van den Haute was looking for a location to open a branch of Cafe Sevilla, his popular San Diego restaurant, when he heard the population projections. He spent $2.7 million turning a vacant tractor dealership into a Spanish-themed restaurant in 1999, complete with a weekend flamenco show.

“People from Orange County and San Diego looked at me and truly asked if I fell on my head,” he said.

Sales grew 16% last year alone and are on par with sales at the Gas Lamp District branch. “Regardless if [downtown revitalization] happens or not … we are there forever,” he said.

Other prominent successes in downtown Riverside included turning the vacant Security Pacific Bank building into a state office complex; luring three federal and state courthouses and, most notably, restoring the historic Mission Inn.

The hotel where Richard and Pat Nixon were married and Ronald and Nancy Reagan spent their wedding night fell into disrepair and closed in 1985. When Riverside native and multimillionaire Duane Roberts bought it for $15.6 million in 1992, it was encircled by a chain-link fence.

The inn has undergone a $55-million restoration. Lush landscaping, stained glass and other eclectic features at the hotel are again drawing tourists and politicians such as President George W. Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Megna faults current city leaders for scattering their efforts on a hodgepodge of projects, instead of focusing on “future-changing” developments such as the Mission Inn.

Councilman Dom Betro, who represents downtown, concedes that the city’s tack must change.

“The [previous] approach was more of a small-town, plan-a-project-at-a-time approach,” he said. “We’re trying to ratchet that up, make it a little more sophisticated, more coordinated, more in sync.”

In November, city leaders named six vital components to bringing downtown Riverside back to life: restoring the Fox Theater, creating the Barbara & Art Culver Center of the Arts, expanding the Riverside School for the Arts and building a shopping and residential complex on Market Street known as the Plaza at Mission Inn. They also called for the construction of 1,000 homes and 500,000 square feet of office space.

In December, the City Council voted to chip in $2.25 million of the $12-million cost of creating the Culver Center, a joint city-UC Riverside project that will be in the vacant Rouse’s department store, which is next to UC Riverside’s California Museum of Photography near City Hall. The center will house film screenings, gallery exhibitions, seminars, artists' studies and classroom and research space.

The City Council voted in November to seize the Fox Theater from its current owner. The Fox became famous when the producer of “Gone With the Wind” brought the classic to Riverside for a secret preview before the movie’s premiere.

The theater has apparently piqued the interest of the Nederlander Organization, which owns the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles and approached the current owner about putting on Broadway-style shows.

Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said a performing arts district’s success would hinge on regular performances at a variety of venues. “If you have a burst of activity followed by a dark period, that’s difficult. It makes it tough for merchants to survive,” he said.

But if the city is successful, it would be filling a void that encourages Inland Empire residents to drive elsewhere for a night on the town.

“Let’s face it, given the freeways, going to downtown Los Angeles or going to Orange County is tough duty,” he said. “Riverside does have some decent demographics that would seem to support [a cultural and nightlife district].”

Demographics has been a catalyst for revitalizations elsewhere. Efforts to create the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica floundered in the 1960s, but triumphed in the 1980s because of wealthy new residents and planning policies that concentrated movie theaters, cafes and shops there, said Bill Fulton, a senior scholar at USC’s School of Policy, Planning and Development.

Downtown Riverside’s keystone was supposed to be Villaggio, a proposal that included a movie theater, shops, restaurants and housing. The idea crumbled in September, with the developer complaining of rising concrete and steel costs. A city committee is considering four competing, scaled-back replacements to go in the area being called the Plaza at Mission Inn, but city leaders say their goal is not to compete with the malls and shopping centers that ring downtown. Modernization comes with a price, and some worry that something special may be lost in the city’s zeal to revitalize.

A historic downtown building that houses a comic store, artists studios and gallery was nearly razed to make way for a law firm’s garage, until the firm backed down last year. Built in 1886, the building was once a boarding house and restaurant operated by Jukichi Harada, who won a legal battle to overturn laws prohibiting the Japanese from owning property.

Artist Marian Semic, who painted the Harada family portrait on the side of the building, and who runs the People’s Gallery on the second floor, cautioned officials to tread carefully.

“I remember when I was a kid, people wanted to tear down the Mission Inn. Where would we be if they had done that?” she said. “The whole downtown area has really started to go through a renaissance. If they are careful and do it right, it will be a wonderful thing.”

Joe Vogel on December 15, 2004 at 5:41 am

I was thinking that if Nederlander, or anyone else, wants to mount Broadway-style shows in the theater, they would need to return the stage house to its original use. The lack of a proper stage house would probably prevent the theater from being fully usable as a performing arts center.

If the Lido does have to be removed, I do hope they document it fully first.

Joe Vogel on December 15, 2004 at 4:32 am

I am wondering what became of the Lido Theatre, designed by Cliff Balch and built into the stage house of the Fox in 1941 or 1942, as a distinct theatre with its own entrance and lobby located in former shop space. Is it still there? If it is, and the Fox is to be restored for live performances, the Lido will have to be removed. This theater is not posted on Cinema Treasures. Does anyone have a description of it?

EugeneDavis on November 17, 2004 at 2:51 am

---

View link
Riverside Votes to Seize Fox Theater
The City Council agrees to force a sale for $1.667 million, saying promised restoration of the building is lagging. The owner vows to fight.
By Seema Mehta
Times Staff Writer

November 17, 2004

The Riverside City Council voted Tuesday to seize the Fox Theater, saying the current owner had failed to restore the historic vaudeville stage and cinema and turn it into a cutting-edge performing arts center.

The vote authorizes the city’s redevelopment agency to use its power of eminent domain to force the sale of the theater to the city for $1.667 million, hundreds of thousands less than owner H.J. “Joe” Zivnak said would compensate him for what he invested in the theater.

“This is a difficult day — one I had hoped could be avoided,“ said Councilman Dom Betro before the 7-0 vote.

“I believe Mr. Zivnak should be commended for the heart and soul and effort he has put into the Fox Theater. But I also believe the Fox is the second most historical building in the city, and one that the City Council must move on.”

Zivnak said the city ignored the theater for decades and became interested only after he was approached by a major theater producer about putting on Broadway-style shows at the Fox. He also said the city reneged on its promise to help him financially with the theater’s roof and seismic retrofit, and he vowed to challenge the city in court.

“There is no question — I will fight them,“ he said before Tuesday’s meeting. "I have done nothing wrong, and they have dealt [with me] in bad faith since the very early parts of this. I did everything in my power to work with them. And all that happened for my efforts was that I ended up losing a lot of money.”

The Fox Theater opened in 1929 and screened the first public showing of “Gone With the Wind” a decade later. It has fallen into disrepair.

Zivnak bought the theater for nearly $1.4 million in March 2001 and said he spent $600,000 on renovations, including plumbing repairs, an upgraded sound system and organ installation, and refurbished office space.

Zivnak, 52, lives in Pomona and manufactures custom truck bodies. He said he bought the theater because of his memories of playing the pipe organ as a child at historic theaters.

“I basically purchased the theater to preserve it and install a pipe organ and preserve the way things were done back in the beginning — sing-alongs, concerts of organ [music], silent movies,“ he said.

“Of course, we weren’t limiting ourselves to that — we were also attempting to restore the vaudeville stage and stage live performances."

Since he bought the Fox, Zivnak has hosted charity fundraisers, silent movies with organ accompaniment and a film festival.

Estimates of full refurbishment costs range from $7 million to $17 million, but such improvements could bring 10,000 people to downtown Riverside every week, greatly boosting the council’s efforts to revitalize its downtown, Betro said.

The theater has apparently caught the interest of the Nederlander Organization, which owns the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles among other venues. Zivnak said he was approached by the company about the possibility of putting on Broadway-style shows six to 10 weeks a year at a refurbished Fox.

The company declined to comment.

Betro said the council’s action was the best move for the city.

“The public benefit to be derived from the city taking charge of creating a performing arts center is really the main factor and most important at this time,” Betro said.

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.

Article licensing and reprint options

---

Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times

DennisLogan on January 24, 2004 at 5:17 pm

A preliminary comprehensive history of Fox Theater
By Marvin Powell, Historic Resources Assistant, Riverside Municipal Museum

Cultural Heritage Landmark # 39 is the local designation for the historic Fox Theater which is located in the Mission Inn District where it contributes to the Spanish architectural ambiance of the Downtown area. The theater was constructed in 1928 and served both as a cinema and vaudeville house, the latter was becoming a thing of the past as movies with recorded sound began to radiate theater. In the 1930’s it was one of the few buildings in downtown to have air-conditioning, a place to escape the sweltering heat. Since then it has undergone a number of changes, the most prevalent being ownership and operation.

Throughout the 1920’s, a chain of playhouses was being established by West Coast Theaters in many states and the construction of “Fox” theaters was rapidly taking place nationwide. The “Riverside Theater”, as it [Fox] was originally named, was one of 305 nationwide playhouses built by West Coast Theaters, a company operating under the aegis of William Fox of Fox Film Corporation. Fox