Take Two for Take One: Brevard City Council Agrees to Renew Lease for Co-Ed Cinema
The Brevard City Council on Monday voted to grant the current operator, Take One Entertainment, a lease that will allow owner Abby Steel to run the theater for as many as 10 more years.
BREVARD — Take One Entertainment LLC, operator of the city-owned Co-Ed Cinema, will get a second chance to run the downtown theater after the Brevard City Council approved a new 10-year lease agreement Monday.
The unanimous vote came despite calls from several residents — including a one-time volunteer with the now-defunct, nonprofit Pisgah Film House, Doug Denton — who advocated for showing a greater variety of films at the cinema; one speaker at the meeting also called for it to be used for live theater.
Abby Steel, the owner of Take One, said afterwards that she was “extremely grateful” for the Council’s decision, and agreed with some of its members who said the discussion over the theater’s use was ultimately constructive, highlighting the demand for a range of entertainment that could include independent offerings and documentaries.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for independent film or something else to crop up,” said Steel, who has typically shown first-run studio movies with an emphasis on family-oriented action films.
“I’ve always thought there was room for both of us . . . We both kind of shine in different areas of film,” she added, referring to the loose group of residents who favored the inclusion of less mainstream releases.
Steel currently offers showings three days a week because Covid-19 has suppressed audiences. She would be willing, she said, to discuss other uses on other nights with Denton, which several Council members encouraged.
That’s a possibility, Denton said after the meeting, but he would have much preferred operating the Co-Ed as a non-profit organization, which would have been especially appropriate considering that the theater is publicly owned.
“I feel as if the Council chose status quo over creativity,” he said. “They missed a wonderful opportunity to support cultural arts and bring people from the county and city together.”
He had asked council to hold off on renewing Take One’s lease to explore a non-profit model.
But following that path, City Attorney Mack McKeller said when introducing the discussion at Monday’s meeting, would leave the city without an active lease and create the possibility that Steel would remove her digital projection equipment.
The result, he said, could be that the Co-Ed would become a “shell of a building.”
The theater, which was built in 1939, was purchased by the city in 1980. Steel bought the theater operation in 2015 from the previous tenant, who had signed a lease in 2012, McKeller told Council.
The new lease extends uninterrupted for five years, and allows Council to renew it for five years after that — always for a nominal annual lease payment of $100. It requires Steel to pay for maintenance and interior improvements while holding the city responsible for structural repairs, such as the $12,000 it recently spent on roof supports.
Unlike the previous lease, the new agreement also calls for Steel to report annually to Council.
Several Council members expressed strong support for Steel.
“I’ve been really proud of Abby and her ability to keep the theater going” during the pandemic, said Council member Mac Morrow, who also said that maintaining a cinema downtown has been a big benefit to the public.
“This is an opportunity to remind everybody that keeping a movie theater on Main Street is something to brag about,” he said.
He and fellow Council members Maurice Jones and Aaron Baker, also said they hoped that Steel and Denton could work out an agreement to show movies within the framework of the new lease.
“No decision tonight stops any of those groups from forming and gaining momentum and talking to (Steel),” Baker said.
“Collaboration and working with people who are your neighbors — that’s what (Brevard) is all about,” he said. “If something like that can come out of this situation, I think it would be wonderful.”
Please, more Indie, documentary and foreign films. Less Kiddie and Action junk. Our population is getting older here. Lots of retirees. Tired of looking up at the marquee and seeing Kiddie Stuff. Thanks.
My husband and I love to go to the CoEd. We are so pleased with the decision in favor of Abby Steel. Mr. Denton’s ideas are also something that might reach another type of audience and would enable the theater to be open on other nights of the week. Also, the movies in the summer on Tuesday and Thursday for the kids is a great idea and one that we hope will continue this coming summer.