Heavy Hearts In Guadalupe as Curtains Close on Royal Theatre’s Restoration Project
GUADALUPE, Calif. (KEYT) - City officials in Guadalupe ordered an abrupt halt to the restoration project at the Royal Theatre.
Some of the work needs to wrap up at the historic site before the operation is fully shut down.
People in Guadalupe had high hopes just last December when groundbreaking started at the site of the historic Royal Theatre.
In February, the sounds of tractors and construction machinery echoed through downtown Guadalupe.
It all went quiet last Tuesday when the city council brought this project to a full stop.
“Having to cancel a project of this scope that had the potential to bring more hope to this community is disheartening,” says Guadalupes’ city administrator David Trujillo.
As the work progressed, crews were encountering more and more issues that required additional expense to fix.
“Once construction started, then it's like they were able to actually look at the meat of the building,” says Trujillo. “Way back when there was a fire over here in this area with the electrical panel, a lot of water damage on this front wall, specifically a lot of mold and stuff that they were starting to find within when they started ripping out drywall . The foundation itself wasn't very structurally sound.”
As those stumbling blocks built up, so did projected financial red flags.
“It's the city's cash flow that was threatened with the construction cost,” says Trujillo.
City administrator David Trujillo says it makes more sense for the city to halt the project now and retain some funding, rather than find itself in debt in the near future trying to keep it going.
“Erring in caution, it kind of made more sense to stop everything,” says Trujillo.
City leaders say there will still be crews out here for a time, as the site must be made safe and preserved as is before a full shut-down can occur.
“Right now it's all just locked up,” says Trujillo. “We're having a meeting tomorrow. We're going to start going over close out. Whether it's reinstalling the glass doors that were here before, you know, just various things like that. We want to talk to them about finishing the roof so we can at least have that secured. The back wall isn't there.”
Trujillo says closing down the project means there's no estimate on how long it could be before work starts up again.
In the meantime, Guadalupe will be meeting other fiscal obligations.
Trujillo says the future of the site here is uncertain, but that the property was originally moved to city ownership with stipulations it be developed as a performing arts venue of some kind.
The Latest Breaking News, Weather Alerts, Sports and More Anytime On Our Mobile Apps. Keep Up With The Latest Articles by Signing Up for the News Channel 3-12 Newsletter.
