Whiteside’s owners never asked for historic designation

The Whiteside Theatre’s status as a historic landmark could keep the vacant building’s owners from redeveloping the property — even though the owners didn’t ask for the designation in the first place.

Five years after Regal Entertainment Group turned out the lights and hung a For Sale sign on the Whiteside, the once-grand movie house remains a vacant hulk, a historic hole in the heart of downtown Corvallis.

It also remains a lightning rod in the debate over historic preservation and property rights.

Three Portland investors want to renovate the 84-year-old theater and turn it into an upscale shopping and dining destination, largely preserving the elaborate Italian Renaissance front facade while extensively remodeling the blank side wall with storefronts and windows. But that plan was shot down Dec. 4 by the Corvallis Historic Resources Commission, which voted 4 to 2 to reject the application for exterior alterations — despite a recommendation for approval by city planning staff.

The development group, Whiteside Partners LLC, is appealing that ruling to the City Council and could ultimately take its case to the state Land Use Board of Appeals.

At the heart of the dispute is the building’s designation as a historic resource, and the history of that designation — which can be traced through records on file with the city — has as many twists and turns as some of the classic thrillers that flickered across the Whiteside’s silver screen in days gone by.

Making history’s A list

The Whiteside Theatre was added to the Corvallis Register of Historic Landmarks and Districts in 1989, along with such other downtown landmarks as the Harding Building and the Majestic Theatre.

All had been identified as potentially significant in a survey conducted in the early ’80s, when the city’s historic preservation program was just getting off the ground. It was part of a statewide effort to inventory and protect Oregon’s cultural and historic treasures.

The survey was reviewed by the Corvallis Historic Preservation Advisory Board, the predecessor of today’s Historic Resources Commission, which nominated the Whiteside and numerous other significant buildings for listing on the local register. Another local body, the Land Development Hearings Board, conducted a public hearing on the matter and made the final decision on which to list.

When the survey was done, the Whiteside was still owned by members of the Whiteside family, the local cinema pioneers who had built the theater in 1922. But several years elapsed before the hearing, and during that time the venerable Corvallis picture palace was acquired by the Portland-based Act III/Luxury Theatres chain.

Act III appears to have learned of the Whiteside’s recommendation for historic status in the fall of 1989, shortly after it bought the theater.

City files hold a letter from Timothy Reed, the company’s vice president for real estate and facilities. It’s dated Sept. 19 and begins with a reference to the proposed historic designation.

“At this time,” the letter reads, “we would like to ask deferral on the above for further evaluation. As you may be aware, we only recently acquired this property, and, as new owners, have not had time to fully evaluate our position on this matter.”

The files also contain an undated response, addressed to Reed, from city planning assistant Kerry Calhoun.

“Your property is scheduled to go before the Land Development Hearings Board on December 7, 1989,” it reads in part. “The Land Development Hearings Board will review the recommendation of the Historic Preservation Advisory Board to add this property to the Corvallis Register of Historic Landmarks and Districts, and, if you wish to ask for a delay in this decision, you will need to present written or spoken testimony at this meeting.”

The only testimony regarding the Whiteside given at the hearing came from theater manager Dave Wilson, who spoke “as a citizen” in favor of the listing. The board voted unanimously to add the Whiteside to the local historic register.

“At that hearing there was no record of any objection to its placement on the local register,” said Bob Richardson, the associate city planner who works with the Historic Resources Commission today. Nor is there any record of an appeal, although Act III had 10 days to file one.

The power of preservation

But even if Reed had driven down I-5 to register a formal objection at the hearing, there’s no guarantee Act III would have been able to keep its newly acquired historic theater off the register — and free of the regulations that encumber the property today.

The board was empowered to make the decision on its own, based on the recommendations of the Historic Preservation Advisory Board and city staff (both of which favored a listing) and testimony from both the owner and the public.

That’s not the case anymore.

Under current law, the owner can generally veto any attempt to list a property on the local register. But that 1989 listing is still binding on the Whiteside, even though the theater changed hands yet again when Act III was gobbled up by Regal in 1998.

“In Oregon, it meant more back then,” said Roger Roper, an official of the State Historic Preservation Office. “If you inventoried it, it went on a list and maybe it got on a register. Historic preservation had more clout back then.”

Corvallis’ historic preservation program was created under the SHPO’s auspices in 1982. But Roper noted it was the city that authorized the historic resource survey and that local preservation decisions are governed by city code, not state law.

“How communities use that information is really a matter of local interpretation,” he said.

None of the Whiteside’s owners has received any direct financial benefit from the building’s historic status. A spot on the National Register of Historic Places comes with a 15-year freeze on property tax assessments, with the savings earmarked for building improvements. But the Whiteside isn’t on the national register, and a place on the local register carries no tax breaks.

The final reel

The City Council is tentatively scheduled to hear the Whiteside Partners appeal on Jan. 16, but the council’s decision will be based on the same provisions of city code the Historic Resources Commission followed when it denied the application. No one knows how the council will vote, of course, but there are provisions of the code that support both preservation and adaptive reuse.

If Whiteside Partners exhausts its appeals, an escape clause allows the development group to walk away from its agreement to purchase the Whiteside, though it would presumably lose whatever earnest money it’s paid so far.

That would leave Regal with several options.

It could simply find another buyer. Local residents Walt and Kim Griffiths have declared their desire to buy the Whiteside for their nonprofit Christian ministry, Relevance Inc., a proposal that requires no exterior alterations and thus no approval by the Historic Resources Commission.

Regal’s vice president for real estate, Todd Boruff, has publicly downplayed the Griffiths’ seriousness. But they have produced an offer sheet that appears to match Regal’s asking price, so the theater chain might change its tune in the absence of another buyer.

If Regal is serious about keeping the Whiteside Partners deal alive, it has a couple of other alternatives available: getting the historic designation removed or demolishing the building.

There again, however, the Whiteside’s listing on the Corvallis Register of Historic Landmarks and Districts becomes the determining factor. Either of those two options would have to be approved by the Historic Resources Commission, which has already demonstrated a pro-preservation bent.

“I think the bottom line,” Richardson said, “is the building does have a historic preservation overlay on it, and because of that those historic preservation provisions come into play.”

Timeline

Nov. 9, 1922: Brothers Samuel and George Whiteside open the Whiteside Theatre with a showing of “The Old Homestead,” a silent picture with organ accompaniment

1927: Theater gutted by fire

1928: Whiteside screens first “talkie” in Corvallis

1936: Fire damages theater ceiling

1950s: Large, neon-lighted marquee installed over front entrance, replacing earlier marquee

1989: Avt III/Luxury Theatres acquires Whiteside Theatre

Dec. 7, 1989: Whiteside added to Corvallis Register of Historic Landmarks and Districts

1998: Regal Entertainment Group buys Act III chain, acquiring Whiteside Theatre

Jan. 27, 2002: Regal closes Whiteside with a screening of “The Fellowship of the Ring”; building goes on sale

August 2002: Forty people attend a public meeting to discuss ways to save the Whiteside

September 2002: Jackson Cassady makes an offer for the building with plans to show second-run movies and host live performances

July 2005: Cassady fails to raise enough money to close Whiteside deal

June 2006: Whiteside Partners LLC enters contract to buy Whiteside for redevelopment as retail/restaurant complex

October 2006: Walt and Kim Griffiths announce backup offer to buy theater if Whiteside Partners pulls out; plans include second-run movies, religious education and performances of Christian music and jazz

Dec. 4, 2006: Corvallis Historic Resources Commission rejects application from Whiteside Partners to remodel theater

Dec. 15, 2006: Whiteside Partners files appeal with City Council

Jan. 16, 2007: City Council to hear Whiteside Partners appeal

PRESERVATION VS. REUSE

Two excerpts from Chapter 2.9 of the Corvallis land development code:

“The City of Corvallis recognizes that historic resources located within its boundaries contribute to the unique character of the community and merit preservation.”

“Some exterior alterations or new construction involving a designated historic resource may be needed to assure its continued use.”