Ambitious plans by a local church to renovate the long-abandoned Ritz Theater on Grand Avenue in downtown Escondido — plans that include the razing of an adjacent commercial building on Juniper Street and construction of a new two-story structure that will be incorporated into the theater’s design, are swiftly coming together.

In just a couple months, if things stay on track, New Vintage Church will have purchased the Ritz and the other building and won approval from the City Council for the $7 million project.

The hope is to start construction in early 2019 and finish in time to hold next year’s Christmas Eve services in the theater.

As envisioned, the theater will become a place for New Vintage to hold services on Sunday while the rest of the time it will serve the downtown community as both a movie theater and stage production venue. Uses for the new building on Juniper Street, which will replace the single-story structure that now houses the Arthur Murray Dance Studio, an accounting business, a hair studio and a dress shop, will include a restaurant or cafe and a variety of other uses mostly geared toward children and teens.


The Arthur Murray Dance Studio and Ritz Theater are at the corner of Grand Ave. near Juniper St. in Escondido, shown on August 15, 2018. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/San Diego Union-Tribune) (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Lead Pastor Tim Spivey says the church views the project partly as giving a gift to the city, a gift that is New Vintage’s way of paying back a gift it received about seven years ago.

Back in 2011, New Vintage was a new church leasing space from Hidden Valley Christian Church at the corner of 13th and Juniper streets. But Hidden Valley fell on hard times and had to shut its doors at which time they gave the building to New Vintage, no strings attached.

“The church was given to us and we feel we now have a chance of giving something back to somebody else,” Spivey said. “It’s a big old gift to the city. That’s how we see it.”


Spivey said the church imagines showing vintage movies at the theater at low cost and selling popcorn for perhaps 25 cents a bag. He said theater groups will use the full stage that will be built in front of the huge screen.

It would be hard for a regular business owner to try to make such a venture work, Spivey said, but for New Vintage to be behind the project makes total sense.

“We don’t have to make money,” he said. “Our revenue comes from other sources.”

More than half the funding for the Ritz project will come from the sale of the church’s exisitng building, Spivey said, with the rest coming from a variety of church capital initiatives. Both the Ritz and the Arthur Murray building are in escrow, and the city has given the thumbs up to the plans although details are still being negotiated and final designs are still being prepared.


The Ritz Theater opened in 1938 with seating for nearly 900. The remodel will likely call for nearly 600 seats.The theater was popular until 1951, according to the website cinematreasures.org, when a fire gutted the interior. It reopened in 1954, but never again did as much business.

In 1970, it became an X-rated movie house called the Pussycat Theater that the city was able to shut down after a few years. The theater went through a couple other rebrandings and remodels but eventually closed for good in 2003.

Spivey, with help of realtor friends, contacted the owner of the theater, Chuck Borough, who gave him a tour last December.

“The place was enormous,” Spivey said. “Huge, high ceiling that makes it seem bigger than it really is. The original seats are in there and there’s a huge movie screen that is still attached but not useable.”


Spivey then contacted an old architect friend who has designed similar projects. The architect suggested trying to buy the adjacent commercial building, which they did and found another willing seller.

“We were able able to negotiate a reasonable price on both buildings and put them in escrow.” The total cost for both buildings will be just under $2 million, “which we think is a steal,” Spivey said.

Nothing has been written in stone yet, but the city held a meeting last week, attended by Mayor Sam Abed and other city officials, who were all supportive.

Abed on Thursday said the plans make sense for the downtown area, where thousands of condos and apartments are expected to be built in the coming years, including as many as 600 on the site of the old Palomar Hospital just down the street from the Ritz.


“It’s a right time in the right place project that will connect the synergy between the main part of Grand Avenue and the Palomar project,” Abed said.

He said the Ritz will no longer be a “black sheep lot” and called the concept “an ideal use for downtown.” Abed said it’s important to have a variety of uses, like a movie theater and a coffee shop, in the downtown area.

“You have to have more than retail today,” he said.

The city has fast-tracked the approval process by agreeing to conditions that will allow the project to bypass the Planning Commission and go straight to the council for approval, most likely in late October or early November.


Spivey said speed is important because the church will have to take out a loan to buy the property and build the complex because it is still occupying the existing church. The faster the project is built, the fewer loan payments and other soft costs expenses the church will face.

If the existing church were to be sold quickly, Spivey said, it’s possible that the church may have to temporarily relocate elsewhere until the Ritz remodel and new Arthur Murray building are finished.


jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones