GEDC approves new owners for the Lynn Theatre

The Lynn Theatre is one step closer to getting back up and running again after the Gonzales Economic Development Corporation board chose to sell the building to Sydney T. Allen and Devon Warzecha at their Monday, Dec. 19 meeting.

GEDC had a packed meeting with three potential buyers of the theater present: Doug Durham, Dennis Kaiser and Susanna Sontanis-Telford Group; Madelyn Abrameit; and Sydney T. Allen and Devon Warzecha.

The board had two public comments regarding the status of the Lynn; Rene De La Garza and James Lawrence both had the same message about letting local people purchase the theater.

“In the past, I know that the theater has been given to people from out of town. It's not made it before … we really need to make it to where it's going to work for the community. We want our children not to travel to Seguin; we want it to be here,” De La Garza said.

Lawrence agreed with De La Garza, especially about working alongside the local restaurants and vendors to make the theater work.

“I just want to ask you all to please consider them [the candidates] strongly. Keep it locally, keep it here in town and keep our children in town,” Lawrence said.

The board returned from closed session to approve selling the Lynn Theatre to Sydney Allen and Devon Warzecha, pending approval by the Gonzales City Council.

“We took the highest and best local offer. We noted that they were maintaining the historical integrity, and that they met the criteria of entertainment venue,” said Ken Morrow, GEDC president.

Allen is a seventh-generation native of Smiley, and her business partner Warzecha is a sixth-generation native of Smiley. They want to make the Lynn a destination.

“Our intention is to make it a destination for not only this community, but for every community and for people coming through,” Allen said.

Allen wants to make the Lynn a “venue of variety,” that includes conferences, live music, festivals, comedy and so on.

“It opens it up for a variety of different things. We already have the foods, so I would like to do dinner and a movie. I would like to also do tech and game nights for the people in town who liked to game and don't have anywhere to go,” Allen said.