5-9-08
VG To Sell the Greenhouse
In the fall of 2006, Victory Gardens opened its newly renovated theatre at the Biograph with great fanfare and much acclaim from patrons and theatre people. It’s beautiful. It’s functional. It has amenities for actors, and for audiences. But upstairs, doors were closed to unfinished rooms, with concrete floors and exposed pipes and insulation in the walls. The theatre had come up short in its capital campaign, and the planned studio theatre and kitchen would just have to wait.
It’s still waiting, but Victory Gardens is about to get a windfall—albeit a bittersweet one. After a year and a half of trying to run two theatre spaces, Victory Gardens is selling its Greenhouse space at 2257 N. Lincoln—the building which it called home for 25 years.
The buyers are William and Wendy Spatz, of Spatz Development, LLC. And, said Bill Spatz, “We’re not changing anything.” Soon after the board approved the sale the last week in April, the Spatz’s met with Greenhouse tenants Remy Bumppo, Shattered Globe, MPAACT, Eclipse and Teatro Vista. Bill Spatz said he told them that their existing agreements would be honored, and more.
“In a community like this there’s the written document and the unwritten document,” Spatz said he told the theatre representatives. “I want to know what the unwritten document is so we can honor that, too.”
He also said he told the tenants about the Spatz charitable foundation. “On the one hand, we’re going to ask for rent; on the other side we’re going to be donating money to them,” said Spatz.
The Spatz’s—who company and various enterprises are family owned and run—are paying $2.25 million for the Greenhouse. That’s much more than the board, artistic director Dennis Zacek and managing director Marcelle McVay thought it was worth. Still McVay and Zacek were against the sale, according to VG board president Jeffrey Rappin.
“Dennis could see the economic reasons for it, but he’s spent a lot of his life there,” Rappin said.
The main condition of the sale is that the building must remain a theatre for 25 years. Spatz said that number was just a legal formality.
“The intent is that it will always be a theatre,” Spatz said. He is setting up a non-profit corporation just for that purpose.
And, the Spatz’s intend to make it a better theatre. To the tenants’ delight, they indicated they were going to upgrade electrics, expand dressing room areas, add bathrooms and give the lobbies a facelift. Spatz said he is also intending to reclaim the space now housing Kendall’s bar, some of which will go to a larger backstage area.
“We expect in the next 12-18 months to put in substantial upgrades, some of which will be visible to the public,” Spatz said.
Victory Gardens staff will temporarily stay at the Greenhouse until McVay and Zacek can find office space close to the Biograph. Then the Spatz’s will reclaim much of the office area for lobby or classroom space.
The Spatz’s will continue to run Victory Gardens’ current school—and they have offered a job with a raise to VG’s current training center coordinator Barbara Harris. (They have also offered to keep the Greenhouse operations/facilities manager Jennifer Kincaid.) But Bill Spatz indicated he would like to add curriculum, though he didn’t have details. Tenants are waiting to see if Spatz’s thoughts on the school become clearer, and how the planned renovation and improvements will play out.
“One of the challenges in the Greenhouse has been Victory Gardens classes, which affect scheduling and rehearsal,” said Remy Bumppo associate artistic director Sean Douglas.
VG will use the $2.25 million to pay off the $800,000 shortfall from the original renovation. After the studio buildout, the theatre will have its first ever endowment, or rainy day fund.
Rappin, who runs an environmental real estate firm, also stressed that operationally Victory Gardens is running in the black. The theatre has increased subscriptions and has found success in bringing in a different audience base with its Fresh Squeezed series.
Zacek and McVay did not want to talk about the sale. McVay said only that she and Dennis were “obviously disappointed.”
Victory Gardens was not looking to sell the space. The idea of a sale came up when Wendy Spatz, who has been on the Victory Gardens board for five years, was asked to do an analysis of the Greenhouse space.
“We came back to them and said, ‘This is worth more than you think.’”
His recommendation was to at least sell the bar space, “but you might consider selling the whole thing, and if you do sell the whole thing, we would clearly be interested in buying it,” said Spatz.
The board then hired its own appraiser, which agreed with Spatz’s findings.
Both Rappin and Spatz expect the sale will be complete by mid to late summer.
“We love the theatre,” said Spatz. Purchasing the Greenhouse “is our way of supporting the theatre and supporting the building and supporting Victory Gardens.”