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Monday, March 1, 2010

News / Business Columbia City Theater Sold

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 3:55 PM

The sale happened on Saturday, after a few months of negotiations.

The new owners, Robert Hillman and C.B. Shamah, are shutting down the venue for at least three months for renovations and many of the acts scheduled to play there—including the popular monthly cabaret by Tamara the Trapeze Lady—are scrambling to find new homes.

"We're trying to help them out," said Shamah. He indicated that the theater was having major financial trouble: "Let's just say this," he said. "The gas to the theater got turned off. The water got turned off today. They didn't have a dumpster—apparently the garbage just disappeared to some garbage heaven. I wish I knew where that was."

Shamah said he and Sur just want to "bring some good music and good vibes to South Seattle." Some regular acts, like Tamara's, will return after the renovation.

Comments (19) RSS

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oh yeah!

Posted by Larry Mizell, Jr. on March 1, 2010 at 4:00 PM

Cool... Hopefully some good acts will come to CC.

Posted by clintboxe on March 1, 2010 at 4:20 PM

this is rad news. someone needs to buy back the old paradox theatre on the north end of the ave and "bring some good music and good vibes" back to the university district.

Posted by more venues on March 1, 2010 at 4:20 PM

Does anybody know anything about the new owners? What do they mean by "good music"? I hope it's stuff I like.

Posted by meks on March 1, 2010 at 4:33 PM

Hi, I'm Kevin Sur and I am actually not the co-owner, just a future employee of the theater.

Posted by artisthome on March 1, 2010 at 4:36 PM

I've attended many an excellent rave at this venue when it was colloquially known as 'The Lish House',and later as the Columbia City Theater. I hope the same relationship with electronic music events.

Oh yeah, and HempFest fundraiser events are often held there, I hope that relationship continues as well.

Posted by NaFun

on March 1, 2010 at 4:59 PM

I've known Kevin and C.B. for a long time and am lucky enough to work with Kevin on Doe Bay Fest. These guys are talented artists themselves, great people and will bring the CCT back to glory! I had the pleaure of meeting Robert this weekend and I can assure you that there will be great art coming out of this new venture! Congrats to Columbia City and musicians of Seattle.

Posted by chadclibborn on March 1, 2010 at 5:15 PM

Maybe they will start getting acts that people want to see.

Posted by Rotten666 on March 1, 2010 at 5:23 PM

That's awesome for music, and tragic for Cabaret. I know many performer's who have relied on the money they've made at shows produced there. I sincerely hope that the new owners will go out of their way to help all the productions they are displacing. I hope they can be the type of business owners who respect artists of all stripes.

Posted by Deevious Silvertongue on March 1, 2010 at 5:33 PM

I wish the new owners good luck, but was devastated to have had a once in a lifetime cd release event cancelled after months of careful planning without less than one week notice. Too bad they couldn't have let us finish what we started. It would have been the kind thing to do in my humble opinion.

Posted by Mrs. Andrews on March 1, 2010 at 6:54 PM

These guys are total assholes- Jazz Night School was set to preform yesterday ( Sunday night) , and we were notified 3 hours before sound check that that the new owners were canceling the event!!! VIA E-mail!! I'm not involved in the business side of music, but burning 20+ performing musicians is not a great way to encourage others to play at your venue in the future. Word of mouth is a powerful thing, and frankly the location is not one that can afford such mean spirited actions against performers. I know I will never support them again.

Posted by Extremely Disappointed on March 1, 2010 at 7:46 PM

Uh, what do you expect them to do without water, gas, or trash disposal? If you want to blame someone, blame the previous owners for making commitments they knew were questionable.

Posted by alf on March 1, 2010 at 7:55 PM

Did you read the article? NO WATER...come on. What kinda of event can happen w/o water?
These things don't happen over night, maybe you should blame the previous bookers...

Posted by Reality on March 1, 2010 at 7:59 PM

The new owners sure could have done a better job. They put up brown paper in all the windows, but no notice to anyone about what had changed or what they planning. We went to the pub next door last night and saw the brown paper along with a hand written paper sign taped on the painted Jazz Night School sidewalk sign saying to check the web site. When we had finished dinner, that sign was gone as well (guess Jazz Night School reclaimed it).

The bartender next door was also surprised to hear about the brown paper when we asked what was going on. He's a musician, and had a gig booked there later in the month...

Thanks Kevin Sur for chiming in. Think you could pass along to the new owners that now might be a good time to send out a notice about the new plans.

Posted by Capitol Hill is the new Wallingford is the new Bellevue on March 1, 2010 at 10:15 PM

Hope they keep Chip Butters. Best sound guy in Seattle. Fantastic producer as well. The studio they have there is awesome.

Posted by Columbia City Theater Fan Boy on March 1, 2010 at 10:45 PM

I know enough to know that if a business runs itself so far into the ground that it's utilities are shut off, the people have no right to operate a business let alone make commitments to people knowing full well that they wouldn't have the facilities to accommodate them. Blame shouldn't be thrown at the people trying to save the building, only at those who ran it into the ground.

Posted by solrac on March 2, 2010 at 12:13 AM

Anybody who was planning to come down this Friday for Jason Geer's 40th birthday (and the four bands who are playing it) should know that we've moved the event to El Corazon (http://elcorazonseattle.com/directions.h…) with after party at Addisound Studio.

Posted by Red Heart Alarm on March 2, 2010 at 11:30 AM

I've had the pleasure of working with Kevin Sur as well, and I assure you he has carefully considered and will continue to figure out ways to help any of the displaced bands (although, this I'm sure is outside of his pay-grade). It is unfortunate that during the "months of negotiations" the previous venue management wouldn't have the courtesy to pass along vital information such as: "we may not be able to accommodate your show if we don't pay our water bill" - or, "the venue is for sale and we may not own it at the time of your show - considering liquor licenses and the many bureaucratic issues involved in the peaceful transfer of a space - it is to be expected that the venue may be closed for an unspecified duration".
As a character witness for the new owners and staff I say you will be happy to hear of the lengths to which these people go to encourage and accommodate artists - and in no way are they negligent or unsympathetic.

Posted by JeremiahH on March 3, 2010 at 3:17 PM

Hey look, an article explaining, exactly, what's going on at the theater. The new owners are moving into an unusable venue. The events that got canceled and the announcements you didn't get were the responsibility of the previous booker of the venue.
If you had a written contract with the previous owners or promoters then you should take that up with them.
If you are already hating the new owners, than chances are you aren't welcome there when they do reopen.
How is it tragic to Cabaret, that new owners are going to renovate the space and reopen it, welcoming back the Cabaret?
The theater is being saved and all you whiners can do is, well, whine. It could just as easily be torn down and turned into condos.

Posted by killmenow on March 4, 2010 at 8:12 PM