Green Thumb Theatre and the Vancouver School Board confirmed today (September 13) that it has sealed a new partnership that will give the theatre company a permanent home, while preserving one of the city’s top heritage sites.

The theatre company plans to renovate the Carleton School House, which was built in 1896. The oldest remaining schoolhouse in Vancouver, it would be transformed into a facility boasting two rehearsal halls, a green room and storage space. The adjacent outbuilding will be converted into administrative offices. The buildings will be leased from the VSB, which had originally planned to demolish the school house.

Renovations for the school house, which was damaged by an arson fire in 2008, will cost around $1 million, Patrick MacDonald, artistic director of Green Thumb Theatre, told the Straight. The company has launched a $1.2 million capital campaign to cover those costs, which it hopes to raise by late spring, 2012.

MacDonald said the move to the schoolhouse would generate significant savings for the theatre company, which has been leasing separate rehearsal and administration spaces, and which has experienced a $37,000 cut to its provincial gaming grant since eligibility requirements were changed. The ability to rent out unused rehearsal halls will also generate some extra revenue, he added.

"In the very first year that we’re in there, there will be approximately a $12,000 to $15,000 net gain to the organization," he said. "That comes from two sources: one is that the 20-year lease deal with the schoolboard, we’ve already fixed the monetary amounts that we pay all the year up to year 20.… In years 16 to 20, the leasing costs that we would be paying is less than we’re paying for our current office now. And once we start renting the halls, we could grow upwards of $50,000 ahead, and all of that money will go back into the operation. It will allow us to commission a lot more new work."

The theatre has been searching for a new home since 2008, when it was forced to move out of its 20-year home to make way for The Cultch renovations. Even before then, said MacDonald, the theatre had outgrown the space.

In a statement, Patti Bacchus, VSB chair, called the partnership with Green Thumb a "win for everyone." She added: “Not only are we re-purposing a gorgeous heritage site, but our students currently attending Sir Guy Carleton Elementary School will get the added benefit of exposure to some of the top theatre educators in BC.”