in place. Right now, the development council has $1.5 million in hand from the California Cultural and Historical Endowment to pay for bringing the building’s façade back to its 1917 look. (It would be too costly to try to recreate the elaborate 1892 façade, and more of the 1917 materials are still around, buried under newer layers.) Another $1.5 million loan is coming from a coalition of four local agencies, the Humboldt Area Foundation, the Headwaters Fund, the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission and the Arcata Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), which is servicing the loan. Each is kicking in $375,000, and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is guaranteeing 90 percent of the loan, reducing the risk for the local organizations. The money will be enough to make the place earthquake safe and to leave a strong framework inside where one day — when more money can be found — the theater, too, could be restored. Assembling the complicated loan package is “kind of a big deal,” said Ross Welch, executive director of AEDC. “It’s the second time we’ve done it, and I’d like to do more of these.” All that local money, though, is contingent on bringing down the fiscal big game, a $5 million behemoth that seems likely — and here’s where everyone squirms a little and talks about crossed fingers — to come through by late July. The money is expected to come from a state Community Development Block Grant aimed at reducing blight in small, relatively low-income communities. Coltra and Welch are both hopeful, partly because the grant effort is fairly far along. So after years of hoping, how close is this to really happening? “Pretty darn close,” said Welch. “I’m about 80 percent confident,” said Coltra. No matter what, Coltra said, work on the leaky roof has got to get going, and it will start in August. That could be done without ousting any tenants. Then, in early 2014, the seismic retrofit and façade work could start. When it’s all over, about nine to 11 months later, the building will be earthen red, with copper bands around the base of each turret and a greenish metal roof that will evoke the oxidized copper of the original roof. The stucco will be gone, replaced with wood and terra cotta bricks. And the third turret will be back, its windows facing south, west and east, just as they did in 1892. l northcoastjournal.com • North Coast Journal • Thursday, May 23, 2013
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