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Post by rocket on Apr 12, 2016 15:22:46 GMT -6
Still think the owner of ace Is waiting to buy the place at a reasonable price and hopes the city will Step in and help pay for demolition. Ace has been trying for years to buy that building and expand their parking lot.
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Post by dive61364 on Apr 12, 2016 16:51:00 GMT -6
Streator can never have too many parking lots. it is heck for a semi driver to deliver in that alley behind ace.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Apr 13, 2016 9:47:44 GMT -6
I've seen Mr. Stone and others at Ace put in many hours maintaining the adequate parking lots that he has now and don't see why he would want to spend anything to have more area to have to clean up broken beer bottles from. I've seen those professional truck drivers do a fine job of delivering there for years and years.
It just seems such a shame to me that our City leaders refused to clean up the problems that give the area such a poor image and keep so many good people away that we can't seem to have more family oriented business. Between not providing proper enforcement of our laws in the area, not being open and upfront with the requirements to reopen it, and showing such great support for the Mayor's long time family friend, our leaders have succeeded in stripping that property of much of its value.
I think it is another substantial loss for our community and also causing excessive losses for a bank who took a risk investing in our community.
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Post by dumdave on Apr 13, 2016 10:46:13 GMT -6
Every time it rains, I just shudder to think of the on going damage to the Majestic.
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Post by dog on Apr 13, 2016 10:51:11 GMT -6
Every time it rains, I just shudder to think of the on going damage to the Majestic. I would think if the bank wanted to protect a good chunk of their investment they have in the Majestic, they would at least make the building weather tight.
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Post by dumdave on Apr 13, 2016 10:55:14 GMT -6
It really is a shame. No one seems to care that who in a position to do something. Well if I win the LOTTO.......
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Post by oldtimer on Apr 13, 2016 13:00:55 GMT -6
Every time it rains, I just shudder to think of the on going damage to the Majestic. I would think if the bank wanted to protect a good chunk of their investment they have in the Majestic, they would at least make the building weather tight. Nobody is buying the theatre. The cost of the renovations and the age of the building aren't worth an investors money. They would just build a totally new theatre. The majestic is done. The bank knows it, too. That's why they aren't spending the money to fix the holes in the roof that are currently there.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Apr 14, 2016 8:59:48 GMT -6
Every time it rains, I just shudder to think of the on going damage to the Majestic. I would think if the bank wanted to protect a good chunk of their investment they have in the Majestic, they would at least make the building weather tight. So much of the damage had already been done from the years and years of Katie letting water run through the place as she collected her donations to save the theatre, that I doubt the bank saw it as being worthwhile to invest more money to try to prevent a little more damage. From my conversations with Hoyt Alexander of First Farmers, it seems that they expected that it would sell right away. I don't think that they ever expected that the City of Streator would work to keep potential buyers away, by forcing them to purchase the building before being able to find out what the City will require to reopen it.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Apr 14, 2016 9:03:03 GMT -6
I would think if the bank wanted to protect a good chunk of their investment they have in the Majestic, they would at least make the building weather tight. Nobody is buying the theatre. The cost of the renovations and the age of the building aren't worth an investors money. They would just build a totally new theatre. The majestic is done. What does age have to do with anything? Is there a certain number of years when a building suddenly has no value? Do you feel the same about people? Don't we also have a Mayor whose age is a high number? Renovation? What makes you think that renovation is required? Did someone at City Hall make a claim that renovation is required? What do you think the costs to patch, paint, and clean up the building to be able to reopen it would be? Katie was asking for half a million (including furnishings too). How many millions do you think it would cost to build another comparable building? Who is it that you think would build a totally new theatre here? Our City leaders already gave away ten years of property tax revenue (money that was supposed to be to fund our the operation of our City and schools and keep home owners' taxes from having to be so high) to help Danny Rogers pay to build a totally new theatre, but now they have committed more tax dollars to another "developer" to purchase it, and it seems that they want to commit another 23 years of tax revenue to tear it down and try building something else. Doesn't it really seem that our City should have better planning before just throwing around tax payers' money? You don't really think that anyone else is going to come here and build a totally new theatre, do you? I feel that despite needing some work, the existing unique movie palace and the tax funded newer theatre could both still be assets to our community, but only with the cooperation of our City leaders. I agree though that the Majestic is done, but only because our City has refused to provide proper enforcement of our laws in the area to create an environment conducive to a family business and chased away potential buyers with their hiding of the requirements to reopen it. On top of the considerable expense that would be required to patch, paint, clean, furnish, and reopen the theatre, adding the threat of someone at City Hall considering it a "renovation" to trigger the huge expense requirements of adding fire sprinklers, meeting many ADA requirements, and other upgrades is enough to turn prospective business owners away, as I have seen first hand.
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Post by kickstand on Apr 14, 2016 10:11:20 GMT -6
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whose expert renovation skills fixed the Majestic originally? Shouldn't those renovations have held up over time? Was it a complete renovation or a patching of problems as they occurred? Katie taking over a theater that the great and powerful Kyle Mitchell repaired up to code completely should have allowed the theater to stay dry and safe from the elements, don't you think? ?
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Apr 14, 2016 12:30:35 GMT -6
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whose expert renovation skills fixed the Majestic originally? Shouldn't those renovations have held up over time? Was it a complete renovation or a patching of problems as they occurred? Katie taking over a theater that the great and powerful Kyle Mitchell repaired up to code completely should have allowed the theater to stay dry and safe from the elements, don't you think? ? What are you talking about? When did I ever claim to have "renovated" the theatre? If I would have "renovated" it, I would have been required to update it, adding fire sprinklers, meeting ADA requirements, etc., wouldn't I? Sure, I had to change the floor plan, expanding the concession stand into the auditorium and upgrading the plumbing and electrical systems to be able to sell food, needed to refurnish the place with screens, drspes, seats, lighting, and much more, had to patch a lot of water damaged plaster, and had to keep patching the roof trying to keep the water out, but it obviously was not a "renovation". The City came through, thoroughly inspected, and issued a Certificate of Occupancy prior to my opening it. Obviously they must have felt that it was safe, met code, and hadn't been "renovated", don't you think? Since they didn't have anything negative to say at the time, it seemed that they didn't have any problems at all, but years later (when they didn't like my simply asking for better for my community) Willy publicly announced here that they were talking behind our backs spreading rumors that my family was doing something wrong by sleeping there (although we were not) because they had seen a bed in a part of the building that was not even part of my agreement with the building owner. A very thorough inspection of the place and the worst thing they could come up with is someone possibly sleeping in a movie theatre? That certainly doesn't indicate that I didn't do a proper job of reworking the theatre that had been boarded over for many years when I reopened it, deoes it? I don't believe the floor plan needs to be changed again and don't see it needing much more now than what my family put into it years ago. However, add the threat of hundreds of thousands in additional opening expenses if someone at City Hall doesn't like someone involved in the project (or what they have to say) and calls it a "renovation", and I think many prospective owners are turned away. Nobody wants to get "Verned", do they?
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on May 24, 2016 11:16:50 GMT -6
The third Majestic auction ends tomorrow. The minimum suggested bid was $45K at the start of this online auction, but is now down to $32.5K.
With our City leaders seeming to jump into bed with the "$120 million/year and growing developer" committing up to 65K tax-payer dollars to help the developer purchase the Northpoint Cinemas and keeping their requirements to patch, paint, clean, refurnish, and reopen the Majestic a huge secret until someone has "a deed in hand", I am very confident that we will see the price go even lower.
The City Manager told me that the supposed big money "developer" is seeking a cinema developer, but I strongly believe that is just another lie from our City officials. The "developer" and our City leaders certainly do know that my employer was very interested in having a theatre in the Streator market, but the "developer has seemed to work against that. Our City leaders seem to have some other agenda other than bringing a movie theatre to our community. Since many times people do eat, shop and fill their tank when they go to another community for their motion picture entertainment, the lack of a movie theatre here does create a large tax drain on our community.
It seems that it would be pretty stupid for anyone to go against our City to even risk being "Verned" at the Majestic.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Jun 7, 2016 5:24:32 GMT -6
I see that there is now a fourth auction for the Majestic. The suggested minimum bid is $32,500 still; the new date is the end of July.
With our City leaders still hiding the requirements to ever use it as a business again and handing the &65,000.00 tax funded "gift" to the seemingly wannabe developer to purchase the other theatre, it seems to me that anyone purchasing the Majestic would be setting themselves up to be "Verned". It is very sad in my opinion.
I hope that our City leaders start doing things differently soon.
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