Curtain Falls on an Effort to Restore Raymond Theatre in Old Pasadena

To the chagrin of preservationists, a plan to buy and restore Old Pasadena’s historic Raymond Theatre as a performing arts center has fallen through.

As a result, the building’s owner, Gene Buchanan, said he will resume his efforts to convert the landmark into apartments, retail stores and offices.

Attorney Pierce O’Donnell said he and entrepreneur Harvey Knell have pulled the plug on their deal, announced in May, to acquire the 80-year-old Georgian Revival-style theater for $3.5 million from Buchanan. They could not secure financing and a developer for an adjacent apartment structure they hoped would help fund the purchase and restoration of the 1,800-seat theater.

“Our goal was to donate the theater to a nonprofit as a performing arts center,” O’Donnell said. “We don’t have children’s theater in Pasadena and that’s why I got into this. The cause remains a good one. But these are very difficult times.”

With that failure, preservationists say they will try to stop Buchanan from getting city approval for his $10-million plan to radically change the auditorium. Buchanan wants to build 62 apartments in the parking lot and in the 90-foot-high stage house, put offices in the balcony area and create retail stores in the main space.

A showcase for vaudeville, pornography flicks and rock ‘n’ roll over the years, the decaying theater on Raymond Avenue has been empty for a decade as the district around it has become very popular for shopping and dining.

“We aren’t going to back down,” said Sue Mossman, executive director of Pasadena Heritage. “The history of this theater has been fraught with problems. But that does not mean it couldn’t be a wonderful place and fabulous venue again.”

Buchanan said the collapse of the sale strengthens his argument that the Raymond is not viable for entertainment anymore. “It’s time for change. This building needs a new lease on life,” said Buchanan, who has owned it for 15 years.

In retrospect, O’Donnell said, a combination of events doomed his plan.

Watt Commercial Properties had been lined up as the developer for the apartments to be built in the parking lot, but dropped out in June.

O’Donnell also complained that the city has not offered financial help. “Without government assistance it is very difficult for two well-intentioned citizens to pull this off,” he said. The final “finger on the scale” he said, was the terrorist attacks. “We had three possible developers on Labor Day and then they just evaporated after 9-11.”

O’Donnell said he and Knell have lost $250,000 in the collapsed deal, including $200,000 in a nonrefundable deposit to Buchanan and a series of extensions that allowed them to seek financing.

“I invested so much time in the project my family was considering putting my face on the side of a milk carton,” said O’Donnell, an entertainment industry lawyer and former owner of the Pasadena Weekly.

A Pasadena zoning officer and the Board of Zoning Appeals rebuffed Buchanan’s project before O’Donnell and Knell entered the picture. Now the City Council will wrestle with the Raymond’s fate.

“This nightmare is back before us,” said Councilman Paul Little. “We’re going to have to weigh the historic building against Buchanan’s proposal, and now we’re going to have to give more consideration to his argument that his plan is all we can do.”