City search for an Olympia Theater operator is a tough act

The curtain is rising on a new act in one of the longest-running dramas in Miami: how can the city keep its 94-year-old Olympia Theater and Tower in good shape to serve the public without losing its shirt?  

The city has finally decided to do what it should have done years ago: get a responsible operator to fix the Flagler Street landmark that a hired real estate broker now runs, keep it operating, and funnel cash to the city. Great aims, but it’s a tough act to produce on the real-world stage.

That stage in this case is magnificent, if shopworn, and there is not a bad seat in the house.

We’re talking about one of the nation’s great decorative movie palaces, the kind they haven’t built since long before television. For years it’s held live performances, civic meetings, book fair presentations, film festivals – anything that uses its 1,240 seats. 

It’s not just a theater. Above it in the 10-story, 88,000-square-foot structure have variously been offices or now 89 apartments, including 10 for theater operations. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

In other words, it’s a big deal. It’s also been a big money-losing headache for city hall.

So a commission agenda item last week to allow the city manager to seek proposals to lease, restore, improve and run the theater with more cultural events might have elicited significant discussion.

Not a word. The commission unanimously authorized City Manager Art Noriega to request proposals, with no limitations on requests or financial arrangements.

Actually, being wide open is wise. Who knows what might turn up – because despite the theater being a gem, the goldmine is upstairs, in a tower that could be anything from luxury residences or a hotel to offices or a trade mart, whatever might be most marketable.

It’s smart to finally test the market for the landmark at 174 E Flagler because for decades the city has fumbled its way through ownership. Businessman Maurice Gusman, who had bought and refurbished it as home to the now-defunct Miami Philharmonic Orchestra, in 1975 handed it to Miami’s Off-Street Parking Board to preserve.

Ever since, the Gusman-Olympia has starred in a long-running cliffhanger. Most of Miami Today’s long list of reports focus on its perils: who would finance it to keep it running, and who would control it?

One peril: in 1992 the city moved to make it a flea market. Later that year the parking board sought to replace it with a housing complex. The next year the city tried to get Miami-Dade County to take the building off its hands. In 1998 the theater threatened to close barring a city subsidy. Then typical movie heroes, the police force, joined in a bailout. Sheer drama.

The parking department had control for decades, but city hall railed at the operating losses and upkeep costs. Non-profit Friends of Gusman toiled to keep it alive. Developers looked at the tower for housing or offices but couldn’t cut a deal with the city. Three of Mr. Gusman’s heirs tried to get the whole thing back.

The historic Olympia Theater in 2012 photo.

Actor Sylvester Stallone, who bought a home next door to Vizcaya in Coconut Grove, tried to save the theater too, as later did a now-defunct non-profit that 11 years ago got control to raise money to endow it. 

Miami Dade College, a frequent user of the Olympia’s stage because it has no downtown theater, looked at programming the stage with student housing in the tower but decided it couldn’t afford the costly restoration.

Now the city is taking the show on the road to see what the market will bear, complete with a conditions assessment by R.J. Heisenbottle Architects, a firm known for historic restorations, “to assist in the preparation for a scope of services for an RFP for the renovation and lease of the Olympia consistent with its rich history.”

A major concern will be how much – or little – a proposer must adhere to the Heisenbottle report. 

A restrictive request for proposals would hamstring proposers, who must profit or they won’t play. But with no restrictions, kiss historic renovations goodbye, because that is the costly half that the tower’s income must finance. Minimizing the historic would maximize profits but be totally wrong.

It’s a tough line – as we see in the fact that for well over three decades a historic theater has been a city money pit.

There are other big questions too. 

What performances would the city allow? It’s not a hypothetical question in a community that has its own foreign policy for politically incorrect events.

What works on Flagler Street? Would it fit with current Flagler renovation that Miami’s Downtown Development Authority is spearheading? And how would changes mesh with plans of the street’s big property owner, Moishe Mana?

How much would commissioners squeeze proposers for revenue and amenities – think jobs or wage levels or affordable housing? Everything added to renovation costs and losses in theater operations would drag down profitability and allure.

In absence of multiple proposers, would the city need voter OK for an Olympia proposal?

And, finally, how would the city keep a good deal on paper from turning into disaster? Miami is known for great-sounding deals for its properties – particularly waterfront – that then wash out.

An example was aired last week after the Olympia action passed without a word. Commissioners discussed a voter-approved 2013 Coconut Grove waterfront deal for restaurants on city land where the city is to share in receipts. 

After nine years, one of those restaurants finally opened this month, commissioners were told. But they then voted to put off the bigger restaurant another nine years before it must open – 18 years after the deal. Meanwhile, a developer’s deal with the city on Watson Island is now 21 years old and still unbuilt.

So, what will safeguard an Olympia deal?

We love the concept of restoring the Olympia, increasing cultural programming and turning city losses into income. Whether all that occurs as programmed is the next big drama for the Flagler Street icon.