Ë®¹ûÅÉAV

Cayuga County Court Judge Thomas Leone signed an order authorizing the 16 South St. property's transfer this week, Auburn Corporation Counsel Nate Garland told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV.

The city filed a petition to take ownership of the historic 1938 art deco theater in January, claiming it had been abandoned by previous owner Schines Theater LLC. The legal action followed years of stalled progress on the theater's rehabilitation and insufficient communication about it with the city by the LLC's principal, East Syracuse developer Bryan Bowers. 

The LLC did not present any opposition to the petition, the order said. Bowers has not responded to Ë®¹ûÅÉAV's requests for comment. 

Bowers last met with Auburn Mayor Jimmy Giannettino and other officials in September, prompting the city to briefly pause its legal action until the developer once again stopped communicating.

Now, Giannettino told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV on Thursday, the city hopes to find a new owner who has a "legit" plan to rehabilitate the theater, with timelines, as well as the resources to see that plan through.

Unlike the LLC, the Schine's new owner will also need to communicate with the city — and the public, the mayor added.

"We all get that there's a lot of emotion tied to this property," he said. "We relayed that to the previous owner, and we will certainly relay that to any potential future owner. There's going to be close scrutiny by the public. So it's important that whoever that partner becomes, they communicate to the public what their plan is and their progress as that plan comes to fruition."

Giannettino thanked city staff for handling the legal action, which he called "a fairly new process for acquiring delinquent properties." He also credited Bowers with accomplishing two key steps in the rehabilitation. With $800,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds from the city, he oversaw the remediation of the theater's hazardous materials and the installation of a new roof. 

The LLC completed that work shortly after buying the Schine for $15,000 in 2018 from the Cayuga County Arts Council, which had seen its own progress stall for several years.

Bowers, who said he would rehabilitate the theater into a multipurpose venue for $6 million, blamed his struggles to do so on the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic climate.

But the developer also appears to have been distracted by similar projects in other cities. Last fall he faced criticism for at a Syracuse judge's orders to demolish a crumbling brick warehouse in the city, and he is to the Supreme Court to hear an eminent domain case against the Oneida County Industrial Development Agency involving a property in Utica.

In Auburn, Bowers leaves behind a tax debt of more than $20,000 — and $2.2 million in state grants on the table. Giannettino said the city will soon reach out to Empire State Development to confirm that the next owner of the theater will be able to claim the grants, which are reimbursement-based and therefore paid only after the completion of the work they were awarded for.

Giannettino said the city has not yet been in contact about the transfer of ownership with the New York State Historic Preservation Office, which holds a preservation covenant on the Schine until 2036 due to almost $500,000 in grants it has administered to the theater. The office did not respond to a request for comment by Ë®¹ûÅÉAV on Thursday. 

The covenant prevents the Schine's owner from making any changes to it without the office's approval. Asked by Ë®¹ûÅÉAV about recent rumors on social media that the historic theater could be demolished — a fate from which it was once spared in the early '90s — Giannettino said there has been "zero conversation" about that.

"This is a good day in the history of the Schine theater," he said. "I look forward to finding a viable partner to make sure we can get that marquee lit up at some point."