Save the Starlite loan approved; new projectors coming; drive-in to reopen soon
The City Council has approved a $200,000 low-interest loan to help an Oklahoma theater operator save the Starlite Drive-In.
The loan proceeds will fund the purchase of digital projectors needed to revive the drive-in, which was closed in October.
Council member James Clendenin, who worked hard to broker the deal to save the Starlite, on Tuesday called the drive-in “an amazing asset to the city.”
Clendenin said he ordinarily wouldn’t support a direct loan from the city to a business, but “In this case I think we have a special circumstance.”
He said it’s critical that theater be ready to go when the weather permits, possibly by as soon as late February, and it would have taken too long to line up private financing.
An anonymous investor has purchased the property and Blake Smith, the co-owner of the Admiral Twin Drive-In of Tulsa, is leasing the property to reopen it as a drive-in.
Clendenin said he’s gotten more comment on the drive-in than any other issue he’s faced as a council member.
“It was overwhelming the amount of people asking to keep this open,” he said.
Kathy Camden, who regularly criticizes the council, said they got this one right.
“It came together well and you worked hard and that was recognized,” she said. “I appreciate you guys listening to the community and working so hard.”
Smith said he was encouraged by the community response to efforts to try to save the Starlite.
Last week, volunteers came out to the property for a cleanup to help him get the drive-in back in business.
Smith said digital projectors are expensive and obviously vital, but don’t have much resale value.
The previous owner, Chuck Bucinski, had sold that equipment in preparation for a developer razing the theater and building a warehouse at the site.
“He almost sort of gave them away, but that’s neither here nor there,” Smith said. “ But we needed the loan to expedite things so we can get back open in a timely manner.
Bucinski had inherited the theater from its longtime owner, the late Jim Goble, and got City Hall to lift a land-use restriction on the property that would have kept it a drive-in.
But the prospective warehouse developer backed away when the city government and the public weighed in to save the theater.
The property at 3900 S. Hydraulic has been a drive-in since 1953.
This story was originally published December 18, 2018 at 12:10 PM.
