Royal Poinciana Playhouse

Comment Up

Special to the Palm Beach Daily News
By LAURENCE McNAMARA
October 13, 2013

It is difficult to determine who is more culpable for disseminating inaccuracies in your Oct. 6 edition regarding the Royal Poinciana Playhouse: Mr. Bob Rodenberg for his distortions or your prior editorial for encouraging his diatribe. Your recent editorial had incorrectly placed the burden of the cost of renovation of the theater on the potential lessee rather than the owner, which is the party responsible according to the 1979 agreement that he signed.

The 1979 agreement requires the owner of the Poinciana Plaza to “continue to lease the space now occupied and used by the ‘Poinciana Theater’ for only for use as a theater.”

I am still searching for the clause that states “it will be allowed to remain shuttered from 2004 through 2013.” The Town Council could have been stronger in enforcement of the 1979 agreement since 2004, but instead listened to a developer’s siren song for much of this period. When the owner sued the town in 2005 to try to terminate the 1979 agreement, the town won a final judgment in 2007 from the Palm Beach Circuit Court, which unequivocally “ordered and adjudged” that the Playhouse is required to be “maintained and operated as a theater.”

Following the issuance of that court order, Town Attorney John Randolph declared that: “The theater must be used as a performing arts venue – that judgment is binding” (Sun Sentinel, July 11, 2007). In a May 18, 2005, letter to the plaza owner, Mr. Randolph similarly stated that “the 1979 agreement between the town and Poinciana Properties LTD provides that there is a continuing obligation to lease this space for use as a theater of the performing and/or visual arts and for lectures or other special events.” The town attorney went on in that 2005 letter to cite “the obligation, pursuant to the agreement between the Town and Poinciana Properties, to continue the theater operation.”

That the owner has neglected the theater since 2004 and, by keeping it closed, possibly subjected its re-opening to more stringent 2013 standards does not somehow shift the owner’s responsibility to maintain the theater and “… continue to lease the space … only for use as a theater …” (1979 agreement) to a prospective lessee.

The responsibility and expense for revitalizing the theater and making it viable for lease and re-opening rest squarely on the shoulders of the owner and its assigns, not on any prospective lessee. We have heard estimates for the cost of complying with the town code and renovating the theater that range as high as $4.5 million to $7 million (with the exception of the mysterious estimates of $15-30 million recently publicized in connection with ongoing lease “negotiations” by the owner). These costs must be borne by the owner of the plaza under the 1979 Agreement.

Mr. Rodenberg takes the matinee restriction in the 1979 agreement and magically carries that restriction to evening performances, stating with wholly unsupported inaccuracy that “… the opportunity to maintain a robust revenue stream is limited to eight days a month,” ignoring the substantial potential revenue from evening performances.

The 1979 agreement also states “the owner will not use economic hardship as an excuse not to open the theater.” This indicates that even a nominal rent of a dollar a year, should that be offered by a qualified prospective lessee, is appropriate as long as it allows the owner to fulfill its responsibility to open the theater.

The owner and its assigns have had the benefit of the bargain for the last nine years; the town has had no benefit during this period, only a quarter million dollar expense to obtain the 2007 final judgment that the 1979 agreement is in full force and requires continued operation of the playhouse. On the other hand, the owner has realized millions in profits from the new construction in the plaza that the agreement allowed in return for his keeping the theater open and functioning.

It is time for the council to firmly enforce the 1979 agreement and insist that lease negotiations comply with the 1979 agreement. The council should not allow the owner to improperly shift to a prospective lessee the plaza owner’s responsibility to restore the theater in order to recreate a viable cultural venue for the future.

Laurence McNamara, Treasurer of Preserve Palm Beach