San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
CURTAIN HAS YET TO RAISE ON VOGUE
Company has plans to turn Chula Vista theater into an entertainment venue with dining and an outdoor patio
It could be another year until the transformation of Chula Vista’s historic Vogue Theater begins.
San Diego design-build firm Tecture Red LLC is looking to convert the nearly 80-year-old building on Third Avenue into an improved event venue and outdoor space, but efforts were stalled due to COVID.
With the uncertainty of when entertainment sites would reopen and how COVID-19 would affect the industry, the firm has had difficulty providing proof of financing and submitting construction documents to the city, according to a city staff report.
“As you can imagine, the pandemic has kind of thrown this project for a loop,” Slade Fischer, coowner of Tecture, told the City Council during a meeting earlier this month.
“I know it seems like we’ve been working on this project forever … but it just, essentially, was not a marketable project during the pandemic. So, essentially, we only had 11 months to put this project together,” Fischer added.
Tecture needed more time to submit documents to the city, which the City Council granted in December 2020, but the firm returned Dec. 7 with the same request.
“The public sentiment for this project and our investors have come back to the table. They’re ready to get going again,” Fischer told the council. “I still believe in the project; I hope that you believe in the project.”
A response came Tuesday via a 4-0 council vote in support of additional time. Mayor Mary Casillas Salas recused herself from voting as she owns property near the Vogue, she said. Their vote approved a series of deadlines that Tecture said it can successfully meet to pull permits for the project by December 2022.
“The Vogue, as I grew up in Chula Vista, it really is a landmark. And I think the vision of what they want to do is incredible,” Deputy Mayor John Mccann said Tuesday. “I think this is a good balance between making sure that they’re going to be able to have the opportunity to perform (and be) supported. Yet, at the same sense, we make sure that they have some milestones … making sure that we are going to get a good product in the end.”
Tecture will have to provide proof of financing by March 14, full construction documents by June 13 and pull permits by Dec. 9. If the firm fails to do any one of the tasks, their agreement with the city is terminated, according to city staff.
The agreement focuses on a vacant lot adjacent to the Vogue, which the City Council agreed in 2019 to sell to the firm for $210,000. The sale is contingent upon Tecture securing financing and completing the aforementioned documents for the overall project.
Councilmember Jill Galvez, whose District 2 includes the Vogue, had initially expressed concern over the firm needing more time. She suggested that if the project continued to struggle moving forward, the city should consider a different use for the adjacent lot.
Fischer indicated that losing the parcel “would essentially kill the project. What makes this financially feasible is adding that incentive.”
A remodel of the lot will allow entertainment to move outdoors, “making sure that it will be a draw for guests at all hours,” according to Tecture, the same firm behind North Park’s Bivouac Ciderworks and Little Italy’s Kettner Exchange. Dubbed the North Block, the parcel would include an outdoor game area, a lounge for live music and movie screenings, as well as space for food trucks and communal tables.
The outdoor feature would pair with the firm’s vision of turning the two-story theater into a new entertainment venue while preserving the building ’s historic attributes. It would bring bars on the first and second floors, mezzanine seating and multifunction spaces.
“We forget that we’re the second-largest city in the county, and this is one of those projects that can really elevate our city,” Councilmember Andrea Cardenas said in support of providing Tecture with extended deadlines.
Built in 1945, the single-screen theater became a symbol of Third Avenue with sentimental value to the community, but it shut down in the summer of 2006 as it struggled to compete with local multiscreen movie theaters and malls.
The Vogue’s remodel aims to better compliment Third Avenue’s recent revitalization.
In February, the city completed a $14.1 million three-phase project to make the avenue more pedestrian-friendly with expanded sidewalks, more bicycle parking, new medians and improved landscaping. Then in August, New City America — the company credited with reinvigorating San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood — took over day-to-day management of the avenue to help the area eventually grow with mixed-use development, more public spaces and entrepreneurial activities.
Tecture will have to provide quarterly progress reports over the course of the year, according to a staff report.