By Ashley Wiebe

Towne Theatre owner open to offers

Oct 20, 2017 | 4:49 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — It’s not technically on the market, but the owner of the Towne Theatre downtown says he’s open for business.

Laurence Gerritsen, 78, bought the building six years ago and has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into renovating it and the lower level office spaces.

“It was a real bargain when I bought it,” saying he paid $100,000 for derelict theatre.

“Somebody’s going to have to have quite the vision in there,” said Mayor Ted Clugston. “It could take millions of dollars to renovate it to do whatever you want to change it into. Or keep the character and fix it up.”

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But now might be your chance.

Gerritsen said that even though the building isn’t on the market, he’s open to taking offers.

“I was going to renovate it and I did,” he said, over the phone from Courtenay, BC. “I renovated the office and retail space and rented it out and I was trying to find maybe somebody, a tenant. At one time, actually, we did have somebody but it didn’t work out.”

Gerritsen said he’s getting older now and he’s not as active as he once was, which is why he’s considering selling it altogether.

He’s looking to get his money back, asking for $600,000, which could be a steal, depending on the project.

At 32,000 sq. feet, the possibilities for the space seem endless.

“Maybe a high end restaurant? And of course there could be a brewery coming down there as well,” Clugston said.

“Something that we were thinking about that could go into a space like that would be residential suites, like maybe a condominium, or a fancy, elegant sort of hotel,” said Robin Anton with the City Centre Development Agency.

“That kind of hotel wouldn’t be the waterslide hotel, obviously,” Clugston added. “It would be for people doing business in the city.”

Both Clugston and Anton agree the downtown need more people living and working in it before those big plans can happen.

“The more concentrated people are downtown, [the more] money floats around through businesses and they utilize the different services that are in the downtown,” Anton said.

“A lot of things have happened downtown. [The theatre is] just on that next street, on 4th Street. 2nd and 3rd are really coming along and maybe 4th will be next,” Clugston said.

Gerritsen said he saw the buildings’ potential once.

“In my opinion, a city without a good downtown is like a man without a heart,” he said.

He only hopes that someone else will feel the same way too.