Mission Mission reader “Stucco Sux” brings us news of Tower Theater’s new asking price:
FYI, Tower Theater on Mission near 20th is up for sale. Asking price: $1,988,000.
Still largely intact inside according to the listing. What a fun tour that would be to take with the realtor. I wish someone would check it out and take lots of pictures…
Johnny of Burrito Justice follows up and proves he is more of a journalist than I am:
Hey, I’ve been waiting for it to break the $2 million mark!
Oct 2006 – $2.6m
Feb 2007 – $2.5m
Nov 2007 – $2.4mClosed as a theater in 1996 — the last one on Mission to close. Used as a church until 2005. Apparently there were murals inside that were painted over. Some photos of the old interior, and random trivia here.
Collage of the exterior in 1942, 1964 and today here, along with some of the other theaters on Mission.
I hate my juvenile handle. Why can’t I come up with something catchy like Burrito Justice? Here’s what vexes me — with all the cash sloshing around in this town, why can’t a local theater company (Rhino just moved out of their space because of the 16th & So. Van Ness vibe) buy the place and renovate?
[...] District. According to Mission Mission the asking price of the Tower Theater on Mission near 20th has dropped below $2 million. Rustle up your piggy banks to pony up the $1,988,000 and it’s yours. As Johnny0 of Burrito [...]
We need a brew and view in this space.
A brew and view would crush it, but isn’t there a lock-down on booze licenses in the Mission right now? I wonder if there’s any way around that. And would the entity that purchased a space like this be the likely ones to eventually operate it, or is it more likely that it just gets bought by a real estate management corp. that would, in turn, lease it to some enterprising folks who wanted to do something with it. Not sure how that normally works for properties like this one.
A good way around it is to get a Beer and Wine license (it’s only liquor–a.k.a. hard booze, licenses that are in lock-down).
the economics would be tough. brew & view would crush, but you’re still only pulling maybe $20 / pp / per visit. not a lot. above that is prohibitive. (ie would you pay much more than $20 to go there? maybe 30? for movie / brew / eats?)
the bldg is 2M, then there’s likely that much at least in renovations & seismic. then permits & insurance. then start-up costs (which would be, actually, pretty low).
one could start a company to buy & reno the bldg, get the biz going, and then lease out the concessions (beer / wine to some local brewer / maker, food to some local chef). profits would come from those rents, and the movie biz.
maybe that would work. maybe.
or (i like this idea) one could RAISE FUNDS to buy the bldg and operate as an NGO, employ folks strictly from the 94110, lease out concessions, and put all the net profits into Homeys. or Dolores Street Services. or some such.