Cultural Center Faces Uncertain Future : Entertainment: Potential buyers are shown the vacant Dorill B. Wright facility in Port Hueneme. A nonprofit group hopes to operate the theater.

PORT HUENEME — Striking architecture. Superb acoustics. Sold-out performances. A beachfront location.

The $2-million Dorill B. Wright Cultural Center appeared to have everything going for it before Port Hueneme shut down the theater in May, 1993, amid a budget crisis.

Now the city’s 588-seat facility, an amalgam of copper, cement and glass on Surfside Drive, sits vacant, costing the city an estimated $25,000 in annual maintenance costs.

“The hope here was, it would be closed temporarily,” said Denis Murrin, Port Hueneme’s facilities maintenance supervisor, who served as the cultural center’s director for five years until it closed. “That was one reason we funded the building enough to be maintained. Now it has settled in that the center may not be in a position to be reopened ever.”

Reality’s bite has finally prompted city officials to start showing the 11-year-old center to buyers interested in taking it over.

At the same time, a nonprofit group headed by Dorill B. Wright, a former mayor and the center’s namesake, has organized a splashy fund-raiser for Sept. 24: the 1995 Ventura County Cowboy Conclave. Launched in July, 1993, the Wright Cultural Arts Center group hopes to raise enough money to convince the city it can operate the center.

But Wright called the challenge of reeling in cash to help cover the center’s estimated $250,000 annual operating cost “significant.” In the group’s two-year existence, he said, it has raised about $20,000.

Wright said he understands that the city must explore other ways to generate revenue from the center. But he said he may not support the center’s sale to any buyer willing to pay the steepest price.

“If this new facility is remodeled to go into another use, I may begin to raise a rather loud voice,” Wright said.

City officials say they do not plan to simply auction off the building.

“It is much more complicated than that,” said Thomas Figg, the city’s director of community development. “You have a building that is a very prominent fixture in the community. . . . It’s not a matter of waiting for the highest bidder.”

Murrin has shown the facility to a dinner theater group, a concert promoter and a couple of churches. Murrin said one of the more promising inquiries he received involved a group wanting to open a “virtual” aquarium. But Murrin said none of the potential buyers have displayed serious interest.

So, as the building remains empty, vandals have etched their tags on the tall window panes. And the wooden benches that line the theater’s outdoor deck are rotting. Murrin estimates it will cost more than $75,000 to repair the theater’s air-conditioning system.

Before it closed, the center had operated on an annual budget of $250,000, of which about $150,000 came from city coffers. Blaming state cutbacks, Port Hueneme’s City Council voted in February, 1992, to eliminate the subsidy, effectively closing the theater.

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Officials had even talked about shutting down the city’s Police Department when Port Hueneme had to slash about $1 million from its operating budget.

“When your house is getting robbed, you don’t call the cultural center,” Murrin said.

Other Ventura County cities with larger budgets have managed to shield their theater subsidies from volatile budget cycles.

When Thousand Oaks opened its $64-million Civic Arts Plaza in 1994, the city had already established an endowment with more than $10 million in pledges and donations. Every year, the Alliance for the Arts will dole out about $250,000 toward operating expenses for the 1,800-seat concert hall and 400-seat theater.

Jack Lavin, general manager for the Oxnard Civic Auditorium, said the city provides a $600,000 annual subsidy for the 1,604-seat theater, which was built in 1968. Oxnard returns any revenue it makes in theater receipts--generally $200,000 to $300,000 annually--to the city’s general fund.

“Oxnard has a long tradition of funding,” Lavin said. “[The auditorium] has received the support of the City Council over the years.”

Port Hueneme City Manager Dick Velthoen said city officials knew they would have to subsidize the cultural center when it was built in 1984. A decade ago, he said, the city had the discretionary funds to funnel into the facility. But he said the City Council had no way of anticipating a budget crisis of the magnitude that hit the city in the early 1990s.

“How about the state took away a lot of money? How about the recession? How about the city was required to cut a million dollars from its general fund?” Velthoen said. “The tide really turned on the city.”

Residents said it upsets them to see the center, designed by award-winning Ventura architect Scott Ellingwood, remain empty. They recall performances ranging from Pat Boone to “Pirates of Penzance.”

Al Ingersoll, a 65-year-old retired Marine, said he wants to see the center used by schools for graduations, proms and other functions.

“All it’s doing now is sitting dormant, doing nothing,” Ingersoll said as he walked along the beach near the theater.

As Murrin wandered through the theater’s tiled lobby furnished with bulbous blue couches, he confesses he no longer enjoys visiting the facility.

“I’ve seen this lobby packed with people with smiles on their faces,” said Murrin, who has worked as a director for several theaters. “It’s hard to see nothing. The silence in the building is hard to deal with.”