[arod74]

Looks like there finally might be some traction to get the movie theater back into decent shape and have Reading put some money into the facilities rather than spending their resources submarining proposals in downtown. It would also be nice to get another business on the end where Joe Marty used to be. It has been quite a few years since the fire and yet it still sits empty. What gives?

Ready for a close-up: Tower to get a face-lift
By Bob Shallit - bshallit@sacbee.com
Last Updated 11:31 am PDT Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Look for a little face-lift -- at long last -- at the Tower Theatre.

The Bay Area family that owns the historic art deco movie house and several connecting businesses is evaluating a major rehab of the 70-year-old building's exterior.

"It once was very grand, and we want to return it to that condition," says Brad Werner, a commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis in San Francisco and member of the family that owns the property.

Among the fix-ups: Repairing cracks in the concrete terrazzo floor at the theater's entrance, extending a line of maroon-colored tiles around the building's perimeter, repairing the roof, improving the parking lot and repainting some of the exterior.

What about the theater's interior, which has fallen into embarrassing disrepair?

That's up to Reading Entertainment Inc., the Southern California cinema company that leases the building. In the past, it has blamed the lack of repairs on concerns that Sacramento city officials might subsidize competing movie theaters downtown.

But Werner says Reading is obligated to do interior maintenance under terms of its "triple-net" lease. "We're telling them, 'OK, guys, we are going to enforce the leases.' "

Reading officials did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment.

Werner says maintenance on the property's exterior slipped because the family member managing the complex was in ill health. He died last year and others now are stepping in to upgrade the property.

Family pride is at stake, Werner says.

"My grandfather (Joe Blumenthal) and his brothers built the theater in 1938," he says. "It's part of our legacy."