Inside the Egyptian Theatre in downtown Coos Bay one of the sights to see was the bigger-than-life Egyptian statues that graced the entrance to the upstairs lobby. The theater closed this week following a banner weekend. World Photo by Madeline Steege

Five days after closing a downtown Coos Bay landmark, Coming Attractions Theatres has not yet announced what’s in store for the Egyptian Theatre.

The company closed the theater on Monday, after 80 years in business.

While Coming Attractions CEO John Schweiger refused to discuss the closure last week, he did say there would be “a very interesting press release” this week.

That release, which is expected to reveal the company’s plans for the theater, is not ready, according to Coming Attractions President Larry McLennan.

“It’s coming,” McLennan said Thursday. “We have no time frame as to when it will be released.”

The Ashland-based company has been interested in selling the theater for several months. The Little Theatre on the Bay Board of Directors took an interest in buying The Egyptian, but was not able to secure funding from the city of Coos Bay before the closure.

However, the North Bend group may not be out of the running yet. LTOB Business Manager Don Williston said he expected an announcement would come soon.

“There should be something being said next week, but right now I don’t know anything, other than what I’ve read in The World,” Williston said.

Meanwhile, Coos Bay City Manager Scott McClure said the City Council will be discussing the fate of The Egyptian during an executive session on Tuesday.

“There have been a couple of shifts,” McClure said. “We don’t know what they all really mean. The city is still interested in finding some way to keep it open in some configuration. It might be kind of different than previously proposed.”

McClure said he doesn’t think the city will be voting on anything when the executive session closes.

“It’s going to be more of an update, a ‘Hey, what do you want to do?’ meeting,” he said.

McClure declined to go into any further detail, but added he believed interested parties remain the city, Little Theatre on the Bay and Coming Attractions.

With the theater’s closure an unpopular reality, some city officials are spurred to make a deal happen soon. The city has hired a firm to evaluate the structure and determine its soundness, Mayor Joe Benetti said. That report will be detailed at Tuesday’s meeting.

Stufflebean and Benetti said they want to see the theater revert back to a live venue and a center for live productions and traveling musicians.

“We really need to regroup and find a way to make this a viable project,” said Councilor Kevin Stufflebean. He said he wants the city to turn up the heat on Coming Attractions and buy the property itself with urban renewal funds. The current real market value of the property is $527,497, according to Coos County Assessor Bob Main.

Benetti said that about six years ago, the asking price was around $940,000.

“That was a lot more than we were interested in paying,” Benetti said. “We wanted to pay $500,000 or $600,000 so we walked away from the deal.”

While he considers the historic landmark priceless, Benetti said there is a limit.

“The (renewal) agency would not be interested in paying $1 million,” he said.

Both Benetti and Stufflebean are worried about adding yet another vacant building to the downtown area.

“I worry about businesses being closed for too long,” Benetti said. “I am concerned about that.”

Stufflebean echoed that sentiment.

“We have so many empty structures downtown already. How many more buildings do we want that are deteriorating?” Stufflebean said. “That is one building we can’t let that happen too.”

Benetti said there’s about $4 million in the renewal fund and that the seven members that make up that body are not all in agreement on how the money should be spent.

Where the other members of the council sit on the matter, Benetti doesn’t know.

“I’m just one of seven,” he said

If the city were able to buy the property outright, it would then transfer the ownership to LTOB. Benetti said the city is not interested in owning and caring for the property.

“I would not be interested in that,” Benetti said. “I don’t think the city should be getting into operating a theater. We would want some group operating it.”