East Austin's Arts on Real set to close

A popular alternative theater in East Austin could shutter permanently this week unless the theater operator and the property's landlord can reach a lease extension.

Arts on Real Theatre, which serves as the permanent home of Naughty Austin Productions and regularly hosts other performance groups and nonprofit gatherings, opened in a former ice warehouse on Real Street in 2003. Five years, thousands of dollars in upgrades and dozens of productions later, the theater is facing eviction.

The property owner, LWR Family Partnerships, is demanding more than $20,000 in "unpaid rent and late fees" before it will agree to discuss a lease extension, says the landlord's attorney, Gary Currier with Vacek Kiecke & Currier LLP. The theater group takes issue with the suggestion that it has outstanding rent due.

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Currier says the initial five-year lease was officially up in March and the landlord does not want to renew it. That means the theater must be out by April 30.

"The tenant was delinquent in paying rent and it took a great amount of effort for the landlord to get the rent," says Currier. "My client would prefer to have a tenant that honors their obligations under the lease agreement."

Arts on Real, which is managed by the nonprofit Arts Entertainment Group, has staged an average of seven shows annually with a six-week run. Last year, the theater drew about 30,000 patrons, says general manager Blake Yelavich, who started Arts on Real in 2003.

The theater is known for staging alternative and occasionally risqué productions such as the Great American Trailer Park Musical and the cheeky comedy The Full Monty.

The property at 2826 Real St. is valued at $385,658, according to Travis County records and includes a performance space that can seat about 100 in addition to offices, classrooms, dressing areas, a rehearsal room and workshop.

The theater is currently staging a production of Matt & Ben, a comedy about a pair of aspiring artists on the south side of Boston struggling to develop a screenplay. That production is slated to run through May 10 but would be cut off mid-run if the theater closes.

"If we don't reach a resolution and/or we don't pay the money that they've demanded, then the theater will be evicted," says attorney Cathy Tabor with Tabor Law Firm who's representing Yelavich.

Arts on Real has sent a letter to all of its patrons asking them to donate money to help keep the theater open. Tabor says she and her client have requested a 30-day extension to finish the current show and allow time to raise the money needed, but that request was denied. The landlord has also denied a request for the matter to be settled through arbitration.

Tabor says her client does not believe he owes back rent and has asked for verification. She adds that some of the invoices from the landlord do not match up. Yelavich has put in well over $30,000 in improvements to the property over the course of the lease, she says.

Yelavich says he believes the theater is being evicted so that the owner can redevelop the property or sell it in order to capitalize on the light-rail stop coming to the area. He concedes that the landlord has worked with Arts on Real in the past, but he says that has all changed.

Yelavich is not optimistic about the prospect of reopening the theater at another location.

"Personally, I've invested so much into this place that I don't have it in me to do it all over again," he says.

www.artsonreal.com