By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
VASSAR — Three prospective buyers are showing interest in the Vassar Theatre, closed since the death of its owner, Timothy S. O’Brien, on March 19.
Vassar City Manager Brad Barrett said “another deal is being put together” for the potential sale of the 77-year-old theater, an art deco movie house restored and upgraded by O’Brien.
Barrett said city officials have been informed there are interested purchasers of the 371-seat theater, which reopened in 2005 after renovations.
“I was under the impression there are three (prospective buyers), and I am aware of who two of them are,” said Barrett, who identified two prospective buyers as out-of-state individuals.
The two prospective buyers “made contact with City Hall requesting information regarding the theater property, and I’m just under the assumption that they were doing their due diligence in getting some background information regarding the property and what was owed to the Vassar Downtown Development Authority,” Barrett said.
At the time of his death, O’Brien owed about $13,800 to Vassar’s Downtown Development Authority, Barrett said.
In documents filed in Tuscola County Probate Court, O’Brien’s estate also owes $8,350, including $335 in an unpaid city water bill and for reimbursement of $978 the Vassar DDA paid after O’Brien’s death to cover an insurance premium to keep property insurance in effect on the theater.
Earlier this week, a real-estate agent asked the city to turn on the water at the theater for an inspection of the building by a potential buyer, but the city declined the request, according to Barrett.
“Unfortunately, the (water) bill is delinquent and the city policy is that we don’t turn the water on unless the delinquency is paid in full,” Barrett said.
In June, Tuscola County Probate Judge Nancy L. Thane named O’Brien’s sister, Patricia A. Uebbing of Melvindale, as heir to the movie house, and appointed Uebbing as personal representative of O’Brien’s estate. O’Brien wasn’t married at the time of his death and had no children or any other siblings. No will had been filed to direct distribution of his property.
“Now that the estate is open and they have appointed (Uebbing) to take care of the estate, the next step is really between (Uebbing) and her lawyer to fulfill her fiduciary responsibility regarding the estate because I think it is common knowledge that the estate, once opened, includes debt that has to be paid back,” O’Brien said.
Among other creditors seeking money from O’Brien’s estate are Jean Esckelson, O’Brien’s girlfriend, who seeks reimbursement of $5,141 for paying O’Brien’s funeral bill, and Caro attorney Duane E. Burgess, who seeks repayment of $934 in costs and attorney fees — billed at $200 an hour — related to work he did for the Vassar DDA. A credit-card company seeks $652 from the estate, while the Mayville State Bank seeks $310 for “charge-off of overdrafts on a checking account.”
In a separate court matter, FirstMerit Bank N.A. maintains that Vassar Theatre LLC granted a mortgage to the bank after borrowing $60,000 from the bank in 2005. Court papers don’t indicate how much the bank claims is still owed on the loan.
Uebbing, in court documents, states the total value of the theater — including contents of the building — is $170,000.
Vassar’s DDA, following an attorney’s recommendation, declined to pay another property-insurance premium on the theater, according to Barrett, who hopes the business will remain a movie theater.
“That was a primary purpose for the DDA when it petitioned the court to open up the estate — to have a supervised estate because there was an overall fear that if someone did purchase the property the buyer many not continue running it as a theater and it might be more valuable for an individual to piecemeal it out, and that’s something that we did not want to happen,” Barrett said.
“Then you just have a building, or a shell of a building.”
Last year, a Kickstarter campaign was organized on the Internet that saw supporters donate $72,737 that gave the theater digital projection equipment. According to an announcement on the Kickstarter website, the Vassar Theatre, built in 1937, “has survived numerous floods, extended closures, vandalism, economic hardships and the ravages of time.”
Any sale proposed by Uebbing would be approved or denied by Judge Thane, according to Barrett, who said the DDA will be allowed to comment on any sale before the judge rules on the transaction.