Hammer Theatre deal a good move
The San Jose City Council unanimously approved making a deal with San Jose State to continue to operate the cityowned Hammer Theatre Center for potentially the next 35 years. That’s a substantial commitment, but it’s a smart move that will provide stability to a key downtown venue. The city built the Hammer Theatre Center for the San Jose Rep in 1997, but the company’s sudden bankruptcy in 2014 caused the theater to go dark for more than a year, causing a ripple effect on surrounding businesses and groups like San Jose Jazz and Cinequest that had used the building for performances.
In urging the council to approve a 15-year agreement, with two 10-year extension options, San Jose Director of Cultural Affairs Kerry Adams Hapner said the short-team deal reached with San Jose State in 2015 had been a way “to kick the tires on the concept” of having the university manage the building.
“I can’t tell you what a big relief it’s been that this has been such a successful model in so many ways,” Adams Hapner told the council.
After a bumpy start, San Jose State has figured out how to manage the 528-seat theater while providing a diverse amount of programming, including live theater, film, music and dance in addition to SJSU uses. “One of the hallmarks of the Hammer is the diversity of the programming,” said General Manager Chris Burrill. “We are attracting audiences from a large genre rather than just people who love theater.”
There were nearly 200 events at the Hammer during its last season, drawing more than 57,000 audience members and bringing in about a third of the Hammer’s $2.5 million in revenue, with the rest coming from the city’s existing subsidy and San Jose State funding.
An upstairs rehearsal space was transformed into a new performance space, Hammer 4, that’s used by San Jose Jazz for its Black Cab series. Audiences have been growing for National Theatre Live screenings and the National Geographic Live speaker series. Groups like Starting Arts and New Ballet also stage performances at the
Hammer, which was able to provide help for some arts groups when the Trianon Theatre closed its doors last year.
But live theater remains the theater’s primary purpose, Burrill said, with touring shows like “The Other Mozart” joining the roster of San Jose State productions that have included “In the Heights” and “The Dreamer Project.” The stability of a long-term deal should allow San Jose State to forge relationships that could bring more live theater there down the road.
The deal includes a $315,000 annual subsidy from the city, subject to consumer price index increases, with $15,000 earmarked for a capital maintenance fund that would be matched by the city. That also makes sense for a building that’s already 23 years old and already needs an upgraded HVAC system. (San Jose State, which put $1.5 million in upgrades into the building when it took over, reported spending $300,000 on maintenance in 2018-19 alone.)
At several points in the council meeting, city officials opined that this was a fitting legacy for former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer — who died Saturday and for whom, along with her husband, Phil Hammer, the theater is named. The general feeling was that Hammer would be happy with this deal.
I won’t claim to know how she felt about San Jose State’s management since 2015. But I know she and her husband opposed handing over the $27 million building to San Jose State at the time, in part because she wanted it to maintain its primary purpose as a home for a resident theater company like the San Jose Rep, of which she was a huge supporter.
But it’s safe to say that San Jose State has exceeded anyone’s expectations for the reactivation of the theater and has kept it as a vital community asset.
That is certainly worth applauding.