MANISTEE -- Manistee leaders are hoping a plan to buy the Vogue Theatre moves forward after its first attempt at closing hit a glitch.
The Downtown Development Authority wants to purchase the historic building on River Street and give it a much needed facelift.
The current owner of the property filed for bankruptcy, and the DDA is hoping to turn it into a thriving business once again by purchasing it for $65,000.
The DDA was set to close on the property Friday but one creditor objected to the sale stating they were not given enough notice. Officials with the DDA say the creditor was served notice at two different addresses on record, but the creditor says he was out of the country at the time and did not have enough time.
Travis Alden, Executive Director of the Manistee Downtown Development Authority, said the DDA is hoping to get an emergency hearing Wednesday and could possibly close on the property that same day.
Once the property is in the hands of the DDA a revitalization plan will get underway.
"All we are planning and preparing to do is some stabilization of the building because unfortunately there is a lot of maintenance things that have been ignored over the years, We felt we needed to take control of the building to prevent further deterioration," explained Alden. "Really the main thing is marketing the property to developers who do historic rehabilitation and we have had a good amount of interested from different people and development firms."
There is also a possibility of turning the once thriving movie theatre back into what it once was.
"We would love to see what happened at the State Theatre in Traverse City and at the Garden Theater in Frankfort," said Alden.
When asked if Michael Moore, who has been implemental in helping Traverse City and Frankfort turn things around, has been contacted, Alden said there has been some communication with the State Theatre group. At this point however, it has been more along the lines of helping with some 'best practices'.
"We would love it if that situation presented itself if Michael Moore and his group took an interested and wanted to become more involved. We would welcome that with open arms," Alden explained.
