The historic Babcock Theater needs serious and expensive repairs.
The city of Billings owns the theater and does not want to pay for repairs, so it’s possible it may sell it for one dollar.
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That’s one of the items the City Council will discuss at a work session on Tuesday night.
“The Babcock Theater is one of few truly unique Billings things,” said Matt Blakeslee, executive director of Art House Billings, which manages the theater and is discussing the purchase. “There's only one Babcock Theater on planet Earth. We want the Babcock to, to shine bright for the community to enjoy.”
Blakeslee has been working with the city to reopen the Babcock Theater after the ceiling collapsed last spring.
The recommendation from the city is to sell the Babcock to Art House management for $1, contribute $100,000 for the deductible on the insurance for the roof, and $500,000 for capital repairs.
Blakeslee estimates it's going to cost twice that to reopen.
“First estimates is about a million dollars of investment just to get it reopened,” Blakeslee said.
According to the city and Blakeslee, the estimated repairs will cost between $3 million and $5 million.
“It's just a lot of money,” said Councilman Mike Boyette. “And we in the city, we, we're not able to do that. So it comes down to what's the best way we can do to move the property off our books and to give it to someone who would actually use the property.”
Boyette says the city's options on the property are limited.
“One is to board it up, which doesn't make sense,” Boyette said. “Another one is try to sell it to someone off in the public, which I don't think is a viable one. And the third one is to help the Art House take control of it,”
He says the third option is the best.
“The most obvious thing is to help the Art House take control of it because they have an interest in it and they have some vested money into it,” Boyette said. “So why wouldn't we try to do that?”
And more ideas could come about from the city council work session on Tuesday night.
“And there's no easy answer,” Boyette said.
And if Art House gets the 750-seat Babcock, those involved believe they can restore it.
"We as Art House are honored and excited at, yes, climbing a giant mountain of trying to fully restore that theater and, and turn it into everything we hoped and believe it can and should be for our community,” Blakeslee said.
