The Majestic Money Pit: From the 35th Edition of Pottsville Free Press, pubished 2005.

This article first appeared in the 35th print edition of Pottsville Free Press, published in 2005, prior to the opening of Pottsville’s Sovereign Majestic Theater.

I started covering the Majestic Theater revival from the beginning. Prior to that day when the story was told to me, the Majestic was a myth. I always thought it was just a beat down Farmers Market, which I have faint memories of as a child growing up here.

I soon found out everything I needed to know about the history of reverse-screen movie theaters, the former theater district in Pottsville and the demise of the Farmers Market.

Anything but a parking lot would be better for this building, and Pottsville’s theater district could use a theater.
The project’s backers said the task at hand was difficult, but marked a target date – this being in 2002 – for New Year’s Eve 2005 – the eve of Pottsville’s Bicentennial. It would be the kickoff to a year of wonderful events in a changed Pottsville. Soon, they said, culture would thrive. The Majestic Theater would create spin-off businesses; restaurants and specialty shops would pop up in response to the theater’s opening.

The Majestic Theater Association, a non-profit group in charge of managing the finances and future of this endeavor, launched a capital campaign. Soon I found myself digging through mountains of photos, compiling story after story about the theater and the drive to renovate and rehabilitate not only this building but the town, too.

The goal at the outset of the capital campaign was lofty – $450,000 – but it was needed to completely gut the Farmers Market as it last stood. It was filled with asbestos, layers of lead paint and the equivalent of severe acid reflux. The guts had to be torn from the building, the shell reconstructed, and then filled with intricate adornments that would re-create the unique look the Majestic once had.

Now the asking price is much, much higher – nearly double if the president of the Majestic Theater Association fulfills his wish of completely recreating the theater and stocking it fully with equipment.

Two weeks ago, the Sovereign Majestic Theater Association made the announcement that it needed more money to complete the project. Without extra funds, the Majestic may only be just a rehabilitated building on Centre Street that may or may not be ready for performances.

According to SMTA President Carl Raring III, the previous capital campaign raised “a little more” than $400,000. Raring says about half of that money, “about $200,000” went to the abatement of dangerous materials left over from previous uses and years of neglect.

There was only $130,000 left in the Majestic’s till, and it wasn’t enough to install the basic infrastructure in the building, like heating and air conditioning and plumbing.

“It’s a shell,” Raring says describing the Majestic, as it stands today downtown. “Money was spent putting the floor in.”

The floor was a serious question from the beginning. Beneath it is nothing but soft gravel and dirt, hardly fit for any type of cellar or basement. The Majestic’s inclined, wood floor had holes rotted through and was removed to below street level and rebuilt.

In what many believe is a political stunt to bolster the efforts of Democratic mayors in election races this year, Governor Ed Rendell visited Pottsville with great news – more than a million dollars – to aid redevelopment projects. Included in that money is a $225,000 “grant” to the Pottsville Redevelopment Authority, money the city has earmarked for the Majestic project.

However, Raring says the money has strings attached and that it is a one-third matching grant. And to get the full $225,000 from the Redevelopment Authority, Raring says the Majestic Theater Association must have the capital to fund two-thirds of the remaining project, or about $450,000. That means, to get the money from the Redevelopment Authority, SMTA needs approximately just more than $300,000.

With that money, plus the Redevelopment Authority money, which will be loaned to SMTA and paid back over a 30-year period, the total cost of the Majestic Theater could near $1 million.

“That would be to build it exactly as we want it,” Raring says, and to defend the near doubling of the project bill, he blames many rising costs and unforeseen circumstances, such as framing lumber rising in cost 60 percent since the project was initially concocted. He also blamed hurricanes and wildfires in the western U.S. as reasons for higher costs, as well as time.

“As soon as we seem to touch something, it goes up,” Raring says.

But Pottsville Area Development Corporation executive director Amy Burkhart says SMTA’s objective is not to borrow money, but to finish the theater and that the full $225,000 available to the project may not be needed.

She adds that bids for construction are still being accepted and the actual cost for the remainder of the theater rehab is not known and that all figures SMTA is going by are merely estimates. She stresses that all that money may or may not be needed.

“What we really want is a complete theater. The goal is not to borrow the money, it’s to finish the theater,” Burkhart says.

Raring noted that Evergreen Builders and Miller Brothers Construction are the two firms in the running for the bid. He, however, seems sure the costs will skyrocket once the pieces that will make this a 175-seat (give or take) theater rather than a spruced-up Farmers Market.

“Can we do it for less? Sure,” Raring says. “We can put less expensive seats in. We can drywall up just 8 feet in the back and 12 feet in the front. We can go with a portable stage and the projector and screen to start.”

Private and public contributions were initially made to the project. Grant funds were funneled to the project while the capital campaigners diligently combed the area in search of financial support.

To really motivate the socially elite – those willing to donate to such a project – a massive street party was put together, mainly through efforts of local businesses, on Centre Street, directly in front of the Majestic’s front doors.
Restaurateurs displayed their wares – investing the time and money to give their product away in support of the project and the event. A lavish stage show featured a fashion show produced by Scott and Kim Greis, and the event was well attended by those expected to be there. A band that once opened for Bill Clinton’s Inaugural Party performed to cap off the night.

Indeed, the campaign was well underway and community support appeared to be growing. Soon, naming rights to the theater were announced. A new name in town, Sovereign Bank held up its end of the community interest deal by giving the project $175,000 and the project would forever be known as the Sovereign Majestic Theater.
It wasn’t long before a symbolic funds thermometer – this time it was a film reel rather than a tube of red – began to flirt with the top. But then the drive seemed to stall and so did interest in the project.

The funds stopped flowing as they once did in the beginning and the critics began to whisper. But soon an announcement was made that the fundraising effort would continue constantly but construction of the theater could begin at any moment.

Environmental contractors entered the building wearing biohazard suits and soon much of the old material was being removed and it seemed as though progress was afoot … finally. Construction and destruction continued right up until last year and then suddenly the Majestic was starting to look the same every day.

Needless to say when the bottle raises on another year in Pottsville, the only sounds emanating from the Majestic are more likely to be hammers and not noise-makers and popping corks.

We're still waiting.

Surely some of that money could come the Schuylkill way, but probably won’t be spent on the projects you find most important to your area or to the county as a whole.

Let’s presume the County receives the $10 million it said it needed about seven years ago to build the intermodal  (neither Spellcheck or the Scrabble dictionary have that word yet) transportation center in Pottsville. If you don’t remember, the project called for a redevelopment of where 84 Lumber and a rail yard once operated into the “hub of transportation” for the County. Aside from some large buildings for retail and office space, the gem of the idea was the return of commuter rails to Pottsville.

Years later, the lot is emptier than ever even though there is signs that a train could be coming to Pottsville with the installation of track partially into the empty lot. If this were the killer idea city and county officials thought and still think it is, still constantly changing the landscape of the project, it could have been built a few years ago.

What if a better idea existed? This large-scale project needn’t be in the same location, and it doesn’t even have to be spent in all one spot, but if the county were to actually be given $10 million as a one-time stimulus, how should it be spent?

Present your ideas (within reason) on how to spend $10 million to the common good in Schuylkill County …

If you’re still “stuck” in Schuylkill County, you know the mall scene is not what it was. I guess when you’re here this long, that phrase just embeds itself. Unfortunately what it used to be, from my perspective, isn’t all that grand either.

In Pottsville, Fairlane Village Mall just suffered the loss of an anchor store, Value City. I used to work there, and was almost sad to see it go. In its last years, even for a discount store, hard times were evident. The other anchor store is subject to a public bail-out for its survival. Boscov’s is barely hanging on financially, and without anchor stores, the mall is doomed.

This isn’t exactly the atmosphere where businesses just move right in to a “prime” location like Fairlane Village Mall, the epicenter of a 50-year-long depression. Certainly, it’s not so Great.

Aside from those rusty anchors, the rest of the mall is half-empty and the other half is Roman Delight. The “record store” just closed. It’s been there nearly as long as the pet store, though it’s gone through about as many name changes (Wall-To-Wall, Listening Booth?, fye, etc.) as I have media formats in my lifetime.

It’s not as though a mall is the most accurate gauge of a local economy, but it’s not a bad indicator. For those truly in the know, could you imagine the Cressona Mall being the busiest of them all? It is.

Grim could describe Fairlane, but only begin to describe the situation at Schuylkill Mall. There are almost no stores open. The main wing resembles a glorified Dirt Mall and the two other wings are ghost chambers. Steve & Barry’s practically closed before it opened. Somehow K-Mart remains open, buoyed only by Sears, also in the Schuylkill Mall. By all reports, The Bon-Ton is within weeks or months of closing its doors.

Clearly there are better options for retail shopping in Berks County and beyond, but most people have opted for Wal-Mart in Schuylkill County. So much so, we built another one in Tamaqua, geographically part of Schuylkill, but don’t ask-don’t tell is our motto. When the first one was built, leaders swore up-and-down that it would not spell the end of the small businesses in Schuylkill County. Compared to Wal-Mart, Boscov’s and Value City are small businesses, and so are the countless victims that have done “business” in Fairlane Village or Schuylkill Mall.

The malls used to be places to “pick up chicks” but on a Friday night, the place is empty. I’m there usually to visit Charlie Sophy, or scope for bargains at Bosco’s these days. Sorry, ladies ; ) They were the birthplace of the Schuylkill Air Hockey Association, and a place to unwind after a tough day at Brightway Janitorial … The Right Way.

I don’t see them rebounding any time soon. Our County Commissioners erred when they agreed to loan Boscov’s millions of dollars that is allegedly guilt-free. That would be the first-ever guilt-free loan then.

But the situation at the malls is only the tip of the problem here. Schuylkill County is about six Obama stimulus packages away from getting out of a half-century of economic depression. It’s sad to think of this story being repeated across our country right now.