A month after the City of Vancouver issued a demolition permit for the historic Pantages Theatre downtown, the first step in the renewal of the 98-year-old York Theatre at 639 Commercial Drive has begun.

On April 19, council approved rezoning plans for the theatre and gave the green light to an agreement for the city to purchase it for the nominal fee of $10 upon completion of its restoration. The theatre will then be leased to the Vancouver East Cultural Centre for a nominal rent of $10 per year, pending approval of the Cultch’s business plan.

Tom Durrie, who spearheaded the Save the York Theatre campaign in 1981, expressed relief. “I carried the banner for years,” he noted. Durrie’s advocacy efforts paid off in December 2008, when council voted to contribute 100 percent of the capital costs of the York Theatre through a mix of density transfer, property-tax exemption, and capital funding.

That decision cleared the way for developer Bruno Wall, who had hashed out an agreement with the Cultch, to purchase the site from Vintage Development Corp. president Paul Phillips. Phillips had planned to knock down the theatre to make way for condos.

Durrie expressed dismay at the loss of the Pantages Theatre. “There used to be so many theatres in Vancouver, especially downtown,” he said. “There were 12 legitimate theatres, all of which have been torn down. Some really beautiful theatres were just destroyed for no good reason....Now we’re suffering from the lack of legitimate performance spaces, and the York Theatre was the last one, really.”

Coun. Heather Deal said the York deal was possible because the building was in better shape than the Pantages. “The reason this worked out is because it was in a condition where it could still be saved,” she said. “It took until now to get the deal right, and it was a challenging negotiation, from what I understand.”

The restored York Theatre, which will boast a fly tower and orchestra pit, is to have 365 seats. Its $15-million restoration will be funded with $1.3 million from the community amenity contribution fund; $1 million from the capital budget for cultural infrastructure; a $39,980 development-cost-levy waiver; heritage-bonus density worth $10.7 million; and a $1.8 million Heritage Canada grant to the Cultch.