Kessler Theater

This is a photo of the former Kessler Theater.

Looks like with some work it could be a nice place

Here is an article about the parking problem and why this building is vacant:

Monday, March 13, 2006
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

"Julie Allen-Lindsey bought the landmark Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff eight years ago. But for eight years, she's been forced to keep 85 percent of this Oak Cliff landmark unleased and empty, the result of a city code that requires far more parking spaces than she can provide.

Ms. Allen-Lindsey's problem isn't unique. Across Dallas' most fragile urban neighborhoods, developers and rehab artists have hit a similar wall – a restrictive parking code.

And while elected officials publicly praise these developers for taking financial risks in on-the-cusp communities, they're forcing them to spend months of their time and thousands of dollars petitioning city boards for exceptions to the parking rules.

City development officials recognize this contradiction and hope to overhaul the 20-year-old parking code in the next year as part of Dallas' fledgling comprehensive plan.

"We're requiring double parking than what people need, and we're forcing buildings to stay dark that could be returned to productive use," Dallas Development Director Theresa O'Donnell said. "We want to make it easy to do the right thing. Right now, all we're doing is costing people time and money."

But the city's efforts are being watched charily by representatives from Oak Lawn and Old East Dallas, who fear any loosening of the current code will exacerbate parking problems along the Cedar Springs and Lower Greenville entertainment districts.

"This won't force people to use mass transit; it will force them to park in less convenient places, like residential neighborhoods," District 14 City Council member Angela Hunt said. "This is about smart development, about not creating parking deficits for the future."

The problem with Dallas' parking code, city planners say, is that it takes a one-size-fits-all approach. The current parking categories are based on fixed ratios of spaces to square feet, and don't consider where in the city the structure is located. A restaurant, for example, requires one parking space per 100 square feet, regardless of whether it's near the West Village or in Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District.

And the code hasn't been updated to account for advances in technology and mechanization. A factory that had 100 employees two decades ago may now only need 20. But the need for fewer spaces may not be reflected in city requirements.


Wasted space

The results are twofold, said John Fregonese, the urban planner Dallas hired to craft its comprehensive plan. First, thousands of acres are being wasted on surface parking lots. Secondly, the developers and businesses the city should be encouraging – those working to redevelop the city's original urban neighborhoods – are being forced to jump through hoop after hoop. If doing business there is a royal pain, he asked, why will they bother?

Ms. Allen-Lindsey was an informed buyer. She knew the Kessler Theater would have parking problems, she said, gazing up from the sidewalk to where neon lights used to blast through the teal and yellow facade. But it had personal significance – her mother walked to the movies there until the Kessler closed in the 1950s. And it was simply too cool to pass up. She and her husband were optimistic. They'd figure something out.

But attempts to convert part of the structure into a garage were foiled by city building inspectors. And years of repeated offers to buy surrounding properties for parking fell on deaf ears. Eventually, motivation ran dry, she said.

"We were gung ho in the beginning, but we lost steam as we went along," said Ms. Allen-Lindsey, an Oak Cliff native and historic home specialist with Coldwell Banker.

Under the current parking code, Dallas is lucky it's seen any redevelopment in Oak Cliff, said Bob Stimson, a developer and former City Council member. On-street parking doesn't count toward required spaces. Neither do diagonal pull-in spaces, because they stick into the city right of way.

It took Albertsons grocery store several years to buy enough lots and raze enough houses in Oak Cliff to meet the city's parking requirement. Since it opened, Mr. Stimson said, he's rarely seen its surface lot more than a quarter full.

"For the most part, it's a piece of concrete that doesn't get used," he said. "This area could've had a much-needed grocery store five years sooner."

Local developers have found crafty ways to get around the parking code, from pushing special "planned development" zoning districts through the City Council to pretending their retail business or office is something else all together.

The typical route is through the city's Board of Adjustment, which can grant the applicant a variance (based on hardship) or a special exception (reducing the parking requirement by up to 25 percent). But the cost to bring a case to the city – a $900 flat fee, plus $100 for each required space the applicant is asking to exclude – can be unaffordable, even with the $10,000 price limit.

And just because you pay the fee doesn't mean your wish is granted. Commercial real estate investor Allen Cullum is tied up with the Board of Adjustment for the second time since December on what he says should have been a simple parking exception. The Stemmons Corridor warehouse he's trying to lease to a relocating graphics company requires 81 spaces under the city's code. But the company's current lot has never held more than 28 cars.


$8,000 for a change

"The message it sends, quite frankly, is 'We don't really know what we're doing,'" said Mr. Cullum, who had to pay the city twice – a total of nearly $8,000 – after the Board of Adjustment declined his first request and asked him to resubmit his application a different way. If Mr. Cullum wasn't so committed to Dallas, he said, "I'd just go up north to Anna or McKinney and say, 'To hell with it.' They'd welcome me with open arms."

It's this attitude city officials fear most. And it's why Dallas' development staff is committed to replacing the current code with something more user-friendly.

Among Mr. Fregonese's recommendations? Creating "park once and walk" districts, where shared parking would allow a number of businesses to piggyback on one central lot. Counting diagonal on-street parking toward the building's total. And reducing the number of required spaces for some types of heavily mechanized industry.

"It needs to be a common-sense approach – this is not rocket science," Ms. O'Donnell said. "Cities all over the country have learned how to deal with this. And we have not kept pace with those new solutions."

How Dallas figures parking spaces

•Restaurant/Bar: 1 space per 100 square feet

•Retail: 1 space per 200 square feet

•Office: 1 space per 333 square feet

•Multifamily housing: 1 space per 500 square feet

•Factory: 1 space per 500 square feet

•Warehouse: 1 space per 1,000 square feet

•Church: 1 space per 4 seats

Cost to take a parking variance case to the city's Board of Adjustment:

$900 flat fee, plus $100 for every mandatory parking space the applicant wants to exclude, up to $10,000".

I remember the fun I had with the city of Dallas trying to get building permits and dealing with inspectors way back in the 70's.Sounds like little has changed.

Kessler Theater—1230 W. Davis
• Owned by Gene Autry Enterprises.
• Opened 1947
• 1957—Revival Center damaged by tornado
• 1962—Revival Center destroyed by 3-alarm fire

Source: Dallas Morning News Archive

This is a recent photo of the Kessler Theater building.

A 1940s movie ad for the Kessler Theater in Dallas.

1982 Photo

1983 Photo

The Kessler was purchased by a local family in 2009 and is undergoing a rennovation.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/0607dnmetkessler.4254062.html

A live performance has been scheduled for the theater:
http://oakcliffblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/12/an-oak-cliff-open-house-see-an.html
and a website established: http://www.thekessler.org/