Preservation office blocks theater’s demolition

Owner will continue seeking approval to raze what local group calls ‘important historic building’ if he can’t find a buyer

‘‘I’m the only one who really knows what it’s like. I’ve been in the basement, I’ve been on the roof ... it’s not in good shape,” McGinty said.

Anne Brockett, an architectural historian with the Historic Preservation Office, said the board adopted the staff report presented to them, which did not support demolition and described the theater as an ‘‘important historic building” in the Takoma, D.C., community.

The application to raze the building, which sits at the corner of Fourth and Butternut streets NW across the Maryland border in Takoma, D.C. was filed with the preservation office in February.

The next step would be a Mayor’s Agent hearing, Brockett said. For permits to demolish historic buildings, owners of those properties must show they would suffer an unreasonable economic hardship otherwise, or that demolition would be in the public interest.

McGinty said even if he was denied again, he would continue on to the next step.

‘‘I presume that after that, if that doesn’t work, I’ll go before the mayor,” he said.

McGinty was presented with several options Thursday: partnering with a community organization to assist in running the theater, developing the site in a way that would keep a theater on the property, or selling the building, the last of which he said he would consider.

But McGinty would consider selling the building only if he was offered a figure approaching $3.5 million, the total he said the land, not the actual theater, was appraised for last year.

‘‘I’d even wish whoever bought it good luck,” he added.

According to a preliminary assessment from the Washington, D.C., tax and revenue office, the property — including the land — was assessed for $1.5 million. The sales price was listed as unavailable. John Reyle, an appraiser and member of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Appraisal Institute, said it was not uncommon for appraisals and assessments to differ.

‘‘More than likely, an assessor can’t spend time on an individual property that an appraiser can,” he said, adding that assessors often deal with older data than an appraiser.

In April, nonprofit organization the Takoma Theatre Conservancy was incorporated to begin ‘‘aggressively seeking funding” to save the property, said the group’s president, Loretta Neumann. The group’s representatives testified Thursday that if they succeeded in buying the building, they would renovate and operate the theater as a daily cultural arts center.

While the Takoma Theatre Conservancy has already collected thousands of dollars from private donors and organizations, the first round of funding would go toward paying for an appraisal of the building, a feasibility study and a business plan through Washington, D.C., nonprofit Cultural Development Corporation, Neumann said.

‘‘It does take a village to do this, and I feel bad Mr. McGinty didn’t have that support in the past, but the past is the past. We really feel the time is right,” she said. ‘‘There is a lot of interest in this theater.”

A new hearing has not yet been scheduled. McGinty said a decision in his favor would be difficult, but not impossible.

‘‘In any event, I cannot continue with this building,” he said.