Tacoma’s favorite indie movie theater needs $5 million to buy a building. Here’s why | Opinion
Security and peace of mind. They’re the kind of intangible feelings life insurance agents and bankers sell you on.
For The Grand Cinema — Tacoma’s only nonprofit, independent movie theater and the only one of its kind in Pierce County — the time to buy is now.
Literally.
This week, The Grand’s leadership, including long-time executive director Philip Cowan, will publicly announce plans to launch a capital campaign raising money for the purchase of the historic Merlino Arts Center building, which has been home to the theater since it signed its first lease and opened its doors more than 25 years ago.
According to Cowan, who spoke to The News Tribune on Tuesday, it will take approximately $5 million to pull it off — and low-key fundraising efforts have already begun.
Cowan indicated The Grand Cinema has approximately $2 million dollars available in reserves, and so far, roughly $1.2 million in new donations and other funding has come in — a total that includes $500,000 from the state’s Building for the Arts campaign, he said.
The goal, Cowan told me, is to raise the money through donations and other outside sources, including grants, allowing the nonprofit, which typically welcomes more than 100,000 patrons a year, to hold onto its $2 million in savings for other needs and future expansions of programming.
A signed agreement by the Merlino building’s current owner gives the nonprofit first dibs on buying the property, and a mid-2025 deadline to come up with the cash, The News Tribune confirmed with both parties.
Cowan said the motivation driving the capital campaign is straightforward:
At a time when Tacoma is rapidly changing and development pressures are sky-high, owning the building will provide the permanence and flexibility The Grand needs to ensure that it will be able to continue operating for decades to come.
“The biggest reason to own our building is to make sure that we’re around forever,” Cowan, who has served as executive director at The Grand since 2006, told The News Tribune.
“If somebody else were to buy the building other than us, they might keep us here, or they might not, but it’s completely out of our control,” he added.
“We want to control our own destiny — rather than just hoping.”
It’s an easy position to appreciate, bolstered by a growing body of evidence illustrating the potential risks for art house and independent theaters like The Grand that maintain leases on their buildings.
I don’t know much about real estate, but I’m certain of this much:
The nonprofit theater is a priceless asset in Tacoma, thanks to the thoughtful curation of its film offerings and the broader programming it delivers — like its film camps for local kids, its annual 253 Short Film Competition and the community gathering space it so often provides.
The prospect of losing it — or even the idea of potentially losing it — should be sobering for anyone who cares about local arts and culture in Pierce County.
Meanwhile, the economic headwinds facing small movie theaters can be staggering and fierce.
In Seattle’s University District, for instance, the historic Grand Illusion Cinema, which dates back to the 1970s, recently announced an effort to relocate — a hand that was forced on the theater after the owner of the building it has long occupied put the property on the market. While the Grand Illusion’s dedicated supporters and staff remain optimistic, according to published reports, there’s no guarantee things will work out. In the interim, film lovers across the region are left to cross their fingers — surely with thoughts of the Harvard Exit’s 2015 demise in the back of their minds.
A few miles away, the beloved Cinerama in downtown Seattle has had to fight for survival in recent years. Closed since 2020, the theater’s future was in perilous limbo until the Seattle International Film Festival swooped in to save it earlier this year, to the great relief of moviegoers near and far.
There’s a relevant local arts comparison, too, even if the underlying circumstances differ in several key ways.
In 2021, Tacoma Arts Live — a nonprofit with a lengthy history managing Tacoma’s publicly-owned theaters, including the Pantages and the Rialto — vocally bowed out of the bidding process for a new contract, asserting that the nonprofit’s landlords (in this case, the city) had made continuing the long-running partnership untenable. The shakeup resulted in a new, national venue management company taking over, and a new direction for Tacoma Arts Live, which had guided Tacoma’s renowned theaters since 1983.
It’s uncertainty like this — in all the forms it could take — that inspired The Grand Cinema and its board of directors to get ahead of the curve, Cowan said.
Buying the Merlino Arts Center building isn’t necessarily a new idea, he indicated — with internal discussions dating back to at least 2008 — but there’s a keen sense of urgency now, Cowan told me.
“At this point, we know it’s going to be sold,” Cowan said of the building.
“So it’s just a question of who that buyer is.”
According to Cheryl Merlino, who purchased the building with her late husband Paul roughly 40 years ago, giving The Grand an exclusive opportunity to buy the property was an easy decision to make.
Paul Merlino passed away in 2016. Together, the Merlinos saw themselves as stewards of the historic property, which was originally an Odd Fellows temple, and also as strong supporters of local arts and culture, his wife explained.
In addition to The Grand Cinema, the Merlino Arts Center is home to a number of noteworthy and important tenants, including Tacoma City Ballet, the Tai Chi and Qigong Wellness Center, Corina Bakery and several others, she noted.
Cheryl Merlino says she hopes the planned sale of the building will help provide security for these businesses and nonprofits as well — a desire that Cowan says The Grand’s leadership shares.
She’s taking a big-picture perspective on her decision to sell, she said.
“I think The Grand is certainly the logical buyer for the building because they’ve been there and they know the character and some of the quirkiness. They’ve also been a large part of the success. I think at some point buildings need to take on their next chapter, and this would certainly give it that opportunity,” Merlino said on Wednesday.
“I think it would be a shame for that building to be removed and to have a box building go up in its place. I’m sure there’s a higher, better use for that property, but as it is, I think it’s a gem,” she continued.
“I think this is a win for everyone.”
Merlino is right, of course — provided The Grand and the supporters it will rely on to help raise millions of dollars can hold up their end of the bargain.
While it’s difficult to put the significance of a venue and resource like The Grand into proper perspective, thinking about what would be lost if it were gone quickly brings the stakes into sharp focus.
For Tacoma’s sake, $5 million seems like a small price to pay to make sure that day never comes.
“The importance of a place like The Grand Cinema can’t be overstated,” said Chase Hutchinson, a former News Tribune reporter and current freelance film critic who interned at the theater back in college. “It serves as more than just a movie theater. It’s a communal gathering space to take in art, showcasing films that other theaters often pass over.”
“(The Grand) continuing to thrive in the long-term is fundamental to preserving the artistic fabric of the city,” Hutchinson added.
“If Tacoma lost The Grand, it would lose out on so many vibrant stories to experience together. … (The city) would lose part of its artistic soul.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
