Fortuna Seeks $1 Million Grant to Rescue Historic Earthquake-Damaged Theater

The marquee on the Fortuna Theatre at 1241 Main Street has been dark for more than three years, but a city council vote and a state grant application have put a community buyout closer to reality than it has ever been.

The Fortuna City Council approved a Community Development Block Grant application for a loan of up to $1 million at a March 16 special meeting. California's CDBG program funds local projects in rural areas that benefit the impoverished, and if the application succeeds, the city will lend the money to the Fortuna Theatre Foundation, a group dedicated to the theater's repair and reopening. The foundation would use the cash to buy the theater; the loan would be repaid over the next 30 years at an interest rate of 3%, with Fortuna holding a lien on the property.

The Fortuna Theatre endured extensive water damage after the December 2022 earthquake, which broke a fire sprinkler head inside the building, causing an estimated $300,000 in damage to the ceiling and drywall. The theater was built in 1938, and Cinema West purchased it in 1999, restoring the aging building and converting the upstairs balcony into two additional screening auditoriums. The 88-year-old theater is owned by Cinema West, a Petaluma company that owns movie theaters throughout California. The foundation needs about $1.1 million to buy the theater, and current owner David Corkill is willing to sell, according to foundation advocate Linda Rasmussen and Fortuna's senior planner Katey Schmidt.

The interior has degraded, and vandals shattered the 90-year-old tempered glass on the ticket booth just days before the council vote, prompting Rasmussen to describe the building as an "attractive nuisance." "The Fortuna community cares about this theater, and it's not okay to have it become an attractive nuisance," Rasmussen said. "Someday it'll be worse. Everyone gets annoyed when I say the word 'blight,' by the way, but it's going to get there. I know Fortuna is really interested in revitalizing the town. And really — you can't do that without our theater."

The Fortuna Theatre Foundation aims to purchase and refurbish the theater, restoring it to its pre-earthquake condition and resuming film screenings, though the foundation has yet to work out what kinds of films it will screen and is also considering building out a stage for live shows and opening a small arcade in the building. If the application is successful and the foundation manages to buy the property, it will fulfill the CDBG requirement to benefit low-income people by giving them jobs at the theater.

The city's position is stronger than a cold-start application would suggest. Fortuna already holds about $910,000 in ongoing revenue from past CDBG programs, much of it debt repayment from 1990s-era housing rehabilitation loans. Under federal law, money earned from previous CDBG programs must be reinvested in other low-income focused programs, though it can only be applied to state-approved uses. Filing the program income spending application also allows the city to apply for $3 million in new CDBG funding under the same timeline.

Rasmussen said some repair work is already underway: the sprinklers have been fixed, and a crew is set to tear out the destroyed seats and walls. Corkill has come around to supporting the foundation's vision of turning the theater into a community venue. "We've turned him around and he's really become an ally to try to get this done," Rasmussen said.

California will reveal the CDBG grant recipients in September. Should the award come through, the deal would still require a property appraisal and formal purchase agreement before the keys to the 88-year-old building change hands — but for the first time since the earthquake knocked out its sprinklers, a clear financial path to getting the marquee lit again exists.