Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The City of Tucumcari likely will issue a request for proposals for facade improvements and an economic viability study for the long-closed Princess Theatre.
The theater soon will undergo removal of hazardous asbestos and lead paint by a Rio Rancho firm for about $200,000.
The city last year received a $250,000 capital outlay award from the New Mexico Legislature for the theater.
Nearly $50,000 of the remaining capital outlay funds will go to the winning bidder of the forthcoming RFP.
Matt Monahan, a member of the Princess Theatre task force, said during a meeting Thursday he still wanted to use the remaining funds for facade improvements, but he also wanted an economic viability study and a monetization strategy for the venue.
“We don’t want to have, in effect, a money pit,” he said of wanting the economic study.
Monahan said he wanted other small theaters in the region to work with the city to help draw acts if the Princess Theatre reopens as a performance venue.
City Clerk Angelica Gray, speaking on behalf of absent city manager Paula Chacon, said Chacon wanted to work with Monahan on drafting the RFP.
Gray said Chacon hoped to have the proposed RFP approved by the city commission during its Jan. 25 meeting.
Former mayor Ralph Moya, who presided over Thursday’s meeting, said state Sen. Pete Campos (D-Las Vegas) wants to make a $1.5 million capital outlay request for the Princess Theatre to the Legislature during its current session.
The Princess Theatre was built by Arch Hurley and partner Gene Hawkins as the H-H Theatre in 1917. They renamed it the Princess Theatre a few years later.
The theater closed in 1962 after a fire, and it never reopened. The city took over ownership of the theater in the early 1980s.