PORTAGE PARK — After seven years with little progress, the owner of the historic and decaying Portage Theater is giving up the property.
Manuel Gliksberg, who is listed as the registered agent for real estate company Avra Properties, LLC, bought the theater in 2018. At the time, Gliksberg said he wanted to turn the 105-year-old theater into a concert venue and community event venue. But the theater has continued to sit empty and could now go into receivership.
The city filed a lawsuit against Avra Properties for building code violations in July. It alleged Gliksberg put up scaffolding and made building repairs without a proper permit while failing to maintain the building in “a structurally safe and stable condition.”
The theater was also named one of the most endangered historic sites in the state in May.
Gliksberg has not provided an update on the theater since 2022, nor has he responded to requests for comment. During a December Cook County Circuit Court hearing, attorney Thomas Raines said the theater had been transferred to a new owner via a divorce settlement. Avra Properties is still listed as the theater’s owner in the Cook County Treasurer’s Office database.
City attorney Glenn Angel said during a Thursday hearing the theater’s owner does not have the funds to maintain the property.
The Portage Theater owner on Monday filed a motion to withdraw from the property, attorney Thomas Carroll said.
“Their position is basically that the company has no assets nor any capital and, therefore, they are just unable to do anything about it,” Carroll said.
During an October Cook County Circuit Court hearing, city inspector Telly Jefferson said four of the five lateral supports that hold up the marquee of the theater are damaged. If immediate repairs aren’t made, the structure could collapse, Jefferson said at the time.
On Thursday, Angel said the canopy company is threatening to take down the canopy beneath the marquee due to lack of payment.
The court appointed Chicago Neighborhood Resources Advisors LLC to conduct an initial feasibility study for the property. The group will determine the cost of needed repairs and outstanding property taxes, Kristen Cabanban, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, said in an email to Block Club.
The city will determine whether Chicago Neighborhood Resources Advisors could be appointed receiver of the property after it reviews the feasibility study at an April 3 hearing, Angel said. A receiver is appointed when a building owner is unable or unwilling to address dangerous conditions themselves.
If Chicago Neighborhood Resources Advisors is appointed receiver of the property, the group’s first priority will be to maintain the canopy stabilizing the marquee, Cabanban said.
Avra Properties owes almost $227,000 in taxes on the property. The property’s 2021 and 2022 delinquent taxes were sold, but Carroll said he did not know the identity of the tax buyer. Angel said the redemption period for paying the buyer of the theater’s delinquent taxes has expired, which could complicate the receivership process.
Amie Zander, managing director of the Six Corners Association, said it feels like “we’re back at square one, essentially.”
“There was hope that the new owner was going to do something with it, but now that it hasn’t been repaired in so long, who’s going to buy it?” she said. “This guy had no money, and he sat on it for X number of years. … It continued to age with no heat, no air.”
The theater has had a series of owners since it closed as a cinema in 2001. It served as a venue for children’s dance recitals, concerts, day camps and silent film screenings before closing for good in 2018.
The city granted the theater landmark status in May 2013. In the Six Corners Economic Development Master Plan, published in August 2013, rehabilitating the theater was listed as a top priority.
Last spring, theater historian Andy Pierce said the Portage Theater was Six Corner’s “missing piece.”
The area has seen much redevelopment in recent years. Last year, luxury apartment complex 6 Corners Lofts, the Clarendale senior living facility, a Target and an Aldi grocery store opened in the area. Plans to bring a 346-unit apartment complex and four commercial buildings to Six Corner’s former Peoples Gas Site are also moving forward.
Pierce called the appointment of a receiver “good news” and said it would at least bring some “motion” to the long-vacant property.
Zander said she hopes the city offers more clarity on what will happen next during the April 3 hearing.
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