PORT ANGELES — An effort to raise funds to buy the Lincoln Theater hadn’t reached its $235,000 goal by a midnight Monday deadline, according to organizers.
“We haven’t reached our goal yet. But this isn’t over,” Scott Nagel posted Tuesday in a YouTube video on www.revitalizeportangeles.org.
“Our Lincoln is still there and we are still here. This is Port Angeles. Our town doesn’t quit. We still have a theater to save,” the video said.
Nagel did not return calls Monday or Tuesday. In an email Tuesday night, Nagel said he was ill and “has no voice.”
In a story published Monday in the PDN, Nagel said: “We should have a special announcement next week. We’re working on a major deal.” He wouldn’t elaborate.
In Tuesday night’s email, he wrote that until the announcement expected next week, “there is nothing to say that is new or adds to the public understanding of our campaign.”
Purchase offer
In December, Nagel and Karen Powell, his wife and business partner, made a $235,000 offer to theater owner Sun Basin Theatres of Wenatchee.
They proposed restoration of the Lincoln as a nonprofit community arts center with film screenings, concerts, theater or corporate meetings and parties.
The “Light Up the Lincoln” campaign is under the umbrella of the Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts, a nonprofit arts organization.
They sought investors to buy the cinema, and had a 60-day window and a one-month extension to complete fundraising.
The extension ended at midnight Monday.
Nagel has said that he continues to negotiate with Sun Basin for additional time, but as of Tuesday no extension had been announced.
He has said that more than 20 people have pledged $1,000, but has not revealed the total of pledges collected.
A detailed renovation plan for the theater by architect Michael Gentry can be seen at the Revitalize Port Angeles website.
Powell has said that if the $235,000 is not raised, pledged donations would be returned to the donors.
Powell and Nagel are established event and festival planners on the North Olympic Peninsula and in Seattle.
Nagel is also the executive director of the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival held in Port Angeles in October.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
