So here we were, a year ago, with one question frying my brain:

How do you determine where to put your theatre?

How do you find properties that are available?

Are we looking for a property to rent or own?

What support system does a theatre need to survive?

OK. Four questions. But the first was critical, and caused a cascade of other questions.

What are good neighborhoods for a theatre in Chicago?

We started with the lists of neighborhoods that already support several theatres: Downtown, Lakeview, Logan Square, Edgewater, Evanston, Andersonville, Wicker Park and Old Town. I threw in Ravenswood since I live there. We considered whether it would be better to put a theatre in an area that didn’t have one (a strategy followed with success by several companies—Writers’ Theatre, Circle, Chicago Theatre, etc.) or in an area with a pre-existing reputation for arts venues. A few factors figured into my decision to ignore most of the suburbs and unserviced areas. First, I knew as a new Equity company, I couldn’t afford to produce year round and I needed a venue that would attract other theatre companies as renters. Second, I live in the city. My ties are in the city. My board was in the city. I had to pick a location that I and the board would want to attend, but that was well known enough to attract suburban visitors. Why wouldn’t I want a theatre in the community I call home?

When looking in the city at less serviced areas, I had to ask, “Why aren’t there more theatres in these areas?” I believe Chicago audiences expect certain types of entertainment in certain areas. Witness the Viaduct’s long struggle to establish themselves as a venue. I think it had less to do with the programming (which was generally strong) and more do to with audience’s initial confusion.  Now it’s well known, but there were several pretty lean years as they ramped up. Belmont and Western? What’s around there? What’s that neighborhood like? Can I park? Is it scary? Can I get a bite to eat? Is there a bar handy? Is it a date location? 

These seem like secondary questions to the art we all hope to practice, but I think they are the audience’s first questions. In a survey Victory Gardens performed a few years ago, one of the highest rated features their subscribers cited was “parking in the hospital lot.” Forget Tony awards, we want parking! I can be a bit of a control freak. If I could, I would control the audience’s experience not just from the moment they walk into my lobby, but from the moment they leave their house. I want them to have an easy time getting to the theatre. If they drive (as over half our audience does), they should be able to park within a minute or two. If they have to pay for parking, it should be well below the cost of a ticket. How far is the train? Bus lines? They should have a selection of restaurants/bars with both midrange and higher end dining options to accommodate the casual evening out alongside the big date. Going to the theatre should be an event. Both pre- and post-show dining gathering are part of the experience. If people are coming to see the play alone, they should feel safe walking there. Ideally, the neighborhood should have a fair amount of foot traffic after dark. And, let’s be honest: theatregoers need a moderate amount of disposable income. Can the neighborhood residents support a theatre or do I have to gather all my support from outside the area? I wanted local neighborhood residents to form the bulk of my audience and donor base after several years. Who do I think wants to attend my theatre? Where do those people live?

Given our relatively limited resources, I knew we weren’t going to buy a building. So how much rent would we pay in each of these areas? This is a little difficult to find out. I’ve never tried to lease commercial property and was at a bit of a loss. Like everyone under 40, I go to Google first; there are several sites that list properties for sale by neighborhood, but there is no master resource. Brokers pay to list their properties, and most sites only have a few brokers. In addition, most of these sites are fairly out of date. I dialed multiple brokers only to find out that those properties were no longer on the market. I never found any site that comprehensively listed commercial properties. But even without actual rental/mortgage rates, I thought I could make some initial guesses. First, I’d find a property with as many of the characteristics of my dream theatre as I could manage:

 1) I didn’t want a mixed-use building, because sound between the tenant apartments and the theatre could be a challenge, unless I rented one or more apartments above.

 2) Ceiling height was also a big consideration. I picked 12’ as the minimum height. Any less than that and I felt that the actors would look cramped on the stage once the grid was hung.

 3) Posts are the bane of nearly every found space. If I had to have them, I decided after some time sketching possible spaces, that 20’ was the minimum distance between them I could accept.

 4) Zoning. This would prove to be the most restrictive requirement of the search. I tried to keep my search restricted to areas that could already hold a theatre. Most landlords would not rezone, and if I wanted to buy, my purchase would be quite risky unless I knew I could use the property for my desired intent before I took out a mortgage. My architects looked up the appropriate zoning and we restricted our search to B4 though B6 and C1 through C3. These later turned out to be too broad, and the city has subsequently changed the zoning codes—we’ll cover that bit of fun in a separate article. If the building isn’t already zoned appropriately, move on unless you are buying and have a lot of money and time.

 5) Ground floor. The city’s building and PPA rules make it extremely difficult to build a theatre on a second floor space due to ADA (Americans with Disability Act) requirements. A second floor space that hasn’t previously been licensed for public performance requires an elevator at a minimum and may require significant structural changes to the building for fire safety. Of particular concern are the width of exit stairwells (which vary depending on your audience capacity).

 6) Fire exits. At a minimum, any space designated for public performance requires two separate accesses to the street. This requirement does not necessarily apply to office spaces or other uses, so make a point of checking. Under some circumstances, shared passageways may not count. For instance, a corridor shared with a restaurant may need to be expanded depending on total building occupancy. These exits also have a minimum distance from theatre to street. I recommend you not make this determination yourself. Ask your architect.

 7) Adequate square footage. Don’t forget (as I did) that you need more than a performance space. You need a lobby, box office, etc. Depending on the occupancy, you will need a certain minimum lobby size. These slight considerations take more space than you might think. I drafted out a sample performance space on paper, then multiplied the square footage by 175 percent to come up with an estimate of the square footage requirement that included support and lobby areas.

Rents are also not available online. To guess at rent ranges, I looked at buildings for sale in the area online. I decided to calculate a 15-year mortgage payment and add 20 percent to determine a range of rent costs. This proved to be accurate +/- 15 percent. Unfortunately, given my strict criteria, I didn’t have any options to do the math on. The selection of online sites is small and quite limited. I spent a few months haunting the “Space” section in The Reader. I found nothing. I also started walking the streets where I found two spaces, neither of which proved to be suitable once I got inside.

So my recommendation is cut to the chase. You’ll need a commercial broker and some time crawling the neighborhoods you’re looking at. Here in Chicago, there are surprisingly few brokers for commercial properties—especially ones who work both rental and sales. In the rental market, even fewer of those are interested in working with theatres. Let’s face it, we’re not spending tons of money so the types of spaces we’re interested in don’t carry a large rental commission. After a few hours on the phone, I found a broker I liked, Michael Thanasouras with Sussex & Reilly Commercial Realty. I was upfront about our financial position and Michael was the only realtor I spoke to who had several properties in mind. A good agent will help you determine the financial feasibility of your move. He should have an idea of rental ranges in the neighborhoods you are targeting. Remember, you don’t need to work exclusively with a single realtor, since most of them have arrangements with specific owners and will therefore have access to different properties. If you find someone you’re comfortable with, he or she can certainly locate properties signed to other agents for you, just as in residential purchasing.

So, we’ve got some criteria and an agent. And we haven’t spent any money (except for some pencils and draft paper). Next month, we’ll look at the rental market and landlords.

Look for the next installment of Space Odyssey in the Aug. 19 issue.

Space Odyssey Archives

Home