Alamo Drafthouse is poised to be the savior of the historic Lakewood Theater. The Austin-based movie house company is in the thick of negotiations for the circa 1938 neighborhood landmark.

“They are Alamo customers through and through,” says Alamo’s DFW COO Bill DiGaetano of Lakewood residents. “It’s a phenomenal site for a theater.”

The theater’s most recent tenant lost its lease in January, and the building’s future has been in question. No local, state or federal designations protect either the exterior or interior.

Willingham-Rutledge and Kinney Property Co., which bought the stretch of the shopping center from the theater to Starbucks in 2012, repeatedly have told neighbors that a theater is their first choice for a new tenant, but they’ve expressed doubt that it’s economically feasible, saying that breaking up the space into retail and restaurants is more likely.

Enter Alamo, which is familiar with historic theaters. The company restored and operates the Ritz in downtown Austin and is renovating the New Mission in San Francisco. These are 2- and 5-screen theaters, respectively, because the company worked within their original sizes.

“We are a company of film nerds and film lovers. Whether it’s preserving 35 mm print or old movies houses, it’s something we’re very passionate about,” DiGaetano says.

Alamo hopes the Lakewood Theater will be its next preservation effort, he says; the company wants to reconfigure the space while retaining the monument, murals and, of course, the iconic tower.

“We would have to break it up into smaller auditoriums — that’s the only way to make something like that truly buy-able from a business standpoint — but other than that, we would keep it as true to its original form as possible,” DiGaetano says.

Though Alamo’s involvement appears to be a win for both theater owners and neighbors, who have vocally raised a ruckus on the theater’s behalf, there’s still at least one big problem: parking. DiGaetano says Alamo needs roughly 150 parking spaces to do the deal, and those spaces are not currently available to the theater on the shopping center property.

“Anybody in the neighborhood knows that, even now with the theater shut down, parking over there is not good at all,” DiGaetano says. “It’s an issue whether Alamo comes in or whether two or three restaurants come in.”

Building a parking garage anywhere on Lakewood Shopping Center property would be nearly impossible, says co-owner Craig Kinney. The center has multiple owners who lay claim to the scant spaces to serve their own tenants. Plus, a garage would require political will. A few years ago, Kinney and co-owner Bill Willingham had hoped to build a two-level parking garage backing up to the theater, but neighbors nixed it. The garage was projected to hold 60 parking spaces; the surface lot holds roughly 32.

DiGaetano says Alamo is open to sharing with nearby properties. Kinney says he has inquired after neighboring lots, such as the Faulkner Tower lot near Gaston on Paulus as well as the Lakewood Towers parking garage on Oram and Alderson. They may be able to cobble together 150 spaces for Alamo, he says, but even then, “any agreement we get will be a short-term agreement, and that’s a problem. Obviously, what Lakewood really needs is additional permanent parking.”

Should the City of Dallas step in? Councilman Philip Kingston, whose district includes the Lakewood Shopping Center, isn’t so sure.

“Anybody who believes what a property owner or developer says, let’s just say I’ve got a bridge for you,” Kingston says. “All of these are money problems, and they all get solved with money.”

Kingston describes himself as the staunchest defender of historic preservation on the City Council. If the deal is being held up by a legitimate regulatory or financial problem that falls into the city’s purview, Kingston says he’s willing to help — but neither Alamo nor the theater owners have contacted him, he says.

“I want the Alamo theater. I want the theater preserved. I want success,” Kingston says. But what’s happening now “sounds an awful lot like a deal negotiation.”

The councilman may be calling their bluff. At press time, the theater owners and Alamo hadn’t come to an agreement about rent, with Kinney saying Alamo was undercutting their offer and DiGaetano countering that Alamo is willing to lease the theater as-is, despite the substantial “x factor” that comes with historic preservation.

So should neighbors just forget the Alamo Drafthouse?

DiGaetano seems hopeful about the negotiations and says Alamo is “ready to keep talking.” If the deal doesn’t pan out, he says, there’s always the possibility that the company could reconsider the Lakewood Theater in the future.

“I don’t think it’s going anywhere,” DiGaetano says. “At least, I hope it’s not.”