Lynn Theater talks continue with Gonzales City Council

The future of the Lynn Theatre as a topic of conversation returned to the Gonzales City Council in a packed Thursday, July 13 meeting at City Hall. 

The theater was put back onto the market in May 2023. Gonzales Economic Development Board president Ken Morrow said to Gonzales Inquirer in the May 15 issue that he received a brief email from a representative of the original purchasers, Christi Ortman Fullilove, stating that Sydney Allen and Devon Warzecha no longer wished to purchase the theater building from the GEDC and the city of Gonzales. 

The Durham Brothers group once again have been given another shot to purchase the theater under the group name Hub City Revitalization LLC.

“David and I love going to movies.  I'm sure there's tons of people here in the audience that love movies and love going to see that experience,” Doug Durham said. 

The theater, located on the corner of St. Paul and St. Lawrence streets, has been closed since 2020 due to financial issues, and many residents of Gonzales want the theater back up and running again. 

“I do believe that we have an opportunity to truly have a movie theater here again. It will add to the quality of life. It will add to the vitality of downtown, all of which I do believe will help also spur growth,” Gonzales resident James Lawrence said.

“In our town, we have so many things to offer right now — great eating places, good places to shop, nice facilities to stay at, but we still don't have really much of anything in the way of entertainment, especially for our families,” Cathey Crawley said. 

Gonzales has a high number of Hispanic families in the community who focus on the “nuclear family,” according to Crawley.

“We have a lot of different types of families these days, but they all need to be able to have times, points and opportunities to be together as family at events. Movies allow that,” Crawley said. “If they can go in their own town, they can go more often because they don't have the cost of travel.” 

Both Crawley and Lawrence told the council to consider the bid the Durham Brothers have, and Crawley added that they have the best interest at heart for the Lynn and the community. 

“They will work diligently to get this open now versus a year or two from now to allow our families to have somewhere to go for extra fun,” Crawley said. 

The council returned from a closed session discussion with no vote at this time, and Mayor Steve Sucher said the council has directed the staff to continue negotiations with the Durham group on the purchase of the theater, and are looking forward to receiving a “finalized agreement in the near future.” 

In other business, the council approved the following agenda items:

--approved policies and procedures relating to the naming of parks and trails in the City of Gonzales

--approved the budget amendment to the operating budget for fiscal year Oct. 1, 2022, and ending Sept. 30, 2023; General Fund: $1,104,915.04 in expenses and $1,069,929.10 in revenue; Water Fund” $1,158,067.34 in expenses; Electric Fun: $680,830.