Penn Theater in the process of being sold
The Butler Redevelopment Authority was in the middle of searching for grant money to pay to demolish of the Penn Theater when a “knight in shining armor” approached the board with an offer.
On Thursday, the authority voted unanimously to accept a $65,000 offer from Bryan Frenchak, who is from Butler Country and now living in Houston, Texas.
Brian McCafferty, chairman of the Butler Redevelopment Authority, said the money will be paid to Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the lending arm of Landmarks Community Capital Corporation, which originally loaned the authority $290,000 to buy the building in 2009.
“We wanted to get it off our books, we have been trying for years to sell it,” McCafferty said. “This is just a tentative agreement. ... This is the beginning, but we're really hoping to have this completed by the end of the year.”
Butler City Council voted to condemn the Penn Theater for demolition at a meeting Oct. 27. McCafferty said getting to that point was the culmination of a long process, but the authority actually heard from Frenchak as early as August.
McCafferty also said the authority had multiple developers and a few groups interested in buying the Penn Theater from the authority over the years, but nothing panned out. When the problems with the structure of the theater came to be seemingly too extreme for the authority to pay to fix, its members decided it was time for a tough decision.
“It came to a point where we had to make a decision, it started being a safety issue, because we didn't have money to fix it, and it seemed that was the only option,” McCafferty said.
McCafferty said Frenchak’s interest in the property brought officials of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to the table. Negotiations on the purchase price were completed between Frenchak’s and the foundation’s lawyers, according to McCafferty. The money will be paid to the foundation, and the redevelopment authority will pay this year’s taxes on the Penn Theater, McCafferty said.
McCafferty also said Frenchak is aware of the structural issues — including the roof leaks, which the authority frequently had to repair. He said Frenchak has a vision for the theater with which the authority members were happy.
According to McCafferty, the authority hopes to close the deal on the theater before the end of the year. With the developments taking place in Butler through the Rotary Cultural District, McCafferty said he is personally excited to see the theater revamped in the coming years, and the offer came at the perfect time.
“I would love to see that neon sign back on,” McCafferty said. “My parents took me to see movies in that theater, that's where you went to take girls on dates.
“I'm so glad that it's not going to be torn down. That really is an asset to any main street.”
Frenchak could not be reached for comment Thursday.
