Frustration mounts as Rochester heads back to drawing board with historic Chateau Theatre

ROCHESTER – Ten years after announcing the purchase of the Chateau Theatre in a celebratory news conference, city officials are still wrestling with how best to use the nearly century-old venue.

Is the current iteration as a flexible event space enough? Or should the city spend millions restoring the building as a theater? Is there a case to be made for selling it off? How great would it be as a bookstore again?

Those were among the questions on the minds of members of the Rochester City Council earlier this month as they lamented the lack of planning for the historic theater, which the city bought in 2015 for $6 million.

Since that time, the building has sat mostly dormant after a series of setbacks related to construction, the COVID-19 pandemic and a failed operating agreement that resulted in a lawsuit.

While activity has begun to pick up over the past couple of years under the direction of the venue’s latest interim operator, Threshold Arts, city leaders say it’s long past time to pull back the curtain on potential long-term options for one of Rochester’s most treasured properties.

“If we have owned this thing for 10 years, how do we not have a vision already of what this should be for us ― owning a pretty significant property downtown?” questioned Council Member Norman Wahl.

“I am just hopeful we are not sitting here in one year at about the same place we are now, as we have been the past nine years.”

Like his six colleagues on the council, Wahl was not around when the city jumped at the opportunity to take on the Chateau with the idea of restoring the building as a performing arts venue.

Those plans, however, never materialized after cost estimates put the restoration at $23 million. The standstill has led to a series of short-term solutions meant to return activity to the building.

In 2019, the city awarded St. Paul-based Exhibits Development Group a lease to operate the Chateau as a rotating exhibition space. EDG started off with a bang with an exhibit featuring rare Beatles artifacts, but was never able to recapture the magic amid the pandemic and construction at nearby Peace Plaza.

The agreement ended abruptly and EDG sued the city for breach of contract. A jury later awarded EDG $335,000 in damages.

In 2022, the city was back to the drawing board. Following a request for proposals, the city selected Threshold Arts’ pitch to bring live events to the Chateau. The proposal was selected over a city-led plan that would have put the use in the hands of the city’s library, parks and music departments.

While Threshold’s concept was slow to take off due to ongoing renovations of the building, the nonprofit says the venue is now in use four days a week — from full productions to smaller events, like weekly puzzle nights.

“The model that we have has taught us a lot, and after two and a half years of learning and kind of growing through, I think it’s a model that can work,” said Naura Anderson, Threshold’s director.

To make it work, Anderson said Threshold would need to find new sources of revenue for the concept, which she admits is still not sustainable. That could include obtaining a liquor license for events or renovating the entryway into a parlor space with coffee and other items for purchase.

The challenge for Threshold, she said, will be continuing to balance hosting weddings and other private events that help the bottom line with community programming that provides public access to the building.

“What I don’t like doing on a regular basis is having a sign on the door that says, ‘Closed for a private event,’” Anderson said. “Because that could be the day that someone is visiting town with a family member who had an experience here 50 years ago, and they would just love to come in and see the space, and we can’t offer that.”

Threshold will have time to make its case to be the long-term operator of the Chateau after the council voted this month to extend its lease through the end of 2026.

In the meantime, the city plans to bring on a consultant with experience in historic venues to help draft potential options for the space. The review could also lead to opportunities for community input.

City staff cautioned the council that this time around it should consider putting up parameters about what is viable for the building.

“The last time we did this, I think it set the wrong expectations for the community that the building itself could be renovated to the level that you could get a Broadway production here,” said Deputy City Administrator Cindy Steinhauser. “And that’s not the reality.”

One consideration likely to spark conversation is whether the city should cut its losses and put the property on the market. On top of the sale price, which included a $500,000 gift from Mayo Clinic, the city has invested $4.4 million into the building for upgrades to plumbing, electrical and acoustics.

There is also precedent for private ownership. Before the city bought the building, Barnes & Noble operated in the Chateau for two decades.

Rochester Mayor Kim Norton, who was not in office when the purchase was made, said she still hears calls for the city to bring back a bookstore.

“I wish they had left it as a bookstore, to be honest, because one of the things that anybody who’s around Mayo Clinic will tell you is the one question people ask is, ‘Where’s that castle bookstore?‘”