Our community theater has been offored the old town movie theater along with a 25,000 grant. The first problem that I see is the lack of stage space. We would have to take out the first 10-20 rows of seats to make it a serviceable theater. If you could give me some advice on what other questions need to be addressed before we go ahead with this that would be great. Here are some thing that I have come up with:

-What is the Tax libality?

-It the buliding structurally sound?

-What is the status of the utilities?

-Overall apraisal value of the building?

I am sure that there are a number of things that I am missing. Any help would be great! Thank you all for your help!

 

Council?s have the habit of giving & then taking back at a later date, when it suits them!
One handy thing to do is attempt to appoint a legal adviser, who enjoys community theatre & is prepared to act in an honoury/advisory portfolio.
Over the years I have ran into a number of Groups, who have spent a lot of time & effort to make a viable workable theatre out of a local Council building, only to loose it, because of a Council vote & stroke of a pen!
What is the capacity of the old picture house?

In Bristol, TN (y'know, where the biiiig racetrack is?), we have a theatre called the Paramount, that was given with just such a grant to the local community theatre. It sounds exactly like what you're describing. But with the grant and the immense amount of fundraising, they were able to yank out the seats, extend the stage, make sure the fly system and fly loft were servicable, and just, in general, have a good time. The theatre is a beautiful Art Deco style, really beautiful.

Then they handed the thing over to the Paramount Foundation for nothing, and now they can't do a lot of what they'd like to do with their shows in it because the Paramount Foundation has all sorts of rules.