Single-screen Guild Theatre is for sale

MENLO PARK — A local resident has launched an online petition to save a downtown theater.

The single-screen Guild Theatre, which has operated at its same El Camino Real location since 1926, is currently run by Landmark Theatres.

Howard Crittenden, owner of the Guild Theatre, said he has been looking for a buyer for the past year and there has not been any takers.

When Judy Adams recently discovered Landmark is on a monthly lease while talking to a theater staffer, she created an online petition at tinyurl. com/hazbwel, which as of last week had nearly 200 signatures. Guild, originally called Menlo Theater, has operated at 949 El Camino Real since 1926.

“We fear it will close and be replaced by yet another retail space or apartments,” Adams wrote in her petition statement.

Adams said she wants to keep the theater as is, screening independent and foreign films and maintaining its “funky interior” charm, but with interior and tech upgrades, bigger bathrooms and air-conditioning. She even reached out to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to see if he would invest in the project.

“There’s a very weak demand for single-screen theaters,” said Crittenden, adding that it would be very difficult for the site to be zoned for a different use, in part because the site has no parking spaces. “I’m concerned we’re going to have a replay of (Park Theater) here. The city held me with a vacant building for 12 years.”

ImagineMenlo, a community group, at the beginning of the year sought ideas from the community on the fate of the theater, which came back with ideas such as using it as an event space during off hours or serving alcohol and food during screenings, but nothing materialized.

“There was a lot of community interest but I don’t think the property owner could find anyone interested in the ideas,” said ImagineMenlo member Bob McGrew.