Rick Ulmer given purchase extension for the Dreamland
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Dreamland Theater owner Haim Zahavi has granted prospective buyer Rick Ulmer a purchase deadline extension from the original date of July 16 so Ulmer can involve a larger cast of investors to help him acquire the building.

"We do have a commitment from a couple of investors, and we're still talking to six or eight who have an interest and are sort of deciding if they can do it and what they can do," Ulmer said Tuesday afternoon. "The response has been extraordinary, and if they're truly interested in stepping up and saving the theater and staying involved, now is the time to act."

On June 15, Ulmer announced that he was working on an agreement with Dreamland Theater owner Haim Zahavi to purchase the movie house from Zahavi, owner of Zee Paragon Investments of Boston, Mass.

Ulmer made an offer to purchase the .15-of-an-acre lot and building at 17 South Water St. (valued at $3,840,500) and the .14-of-an-acre parking lot behind the theater at 18 Easy St. (assessed at $1,960,300) on June 14, but would not disclose the amount. Over the last month, Ulmer's and Zahavi's attorney's have been working on the purchase-andsale agreement. Zahavi, who paid $6 million to the Anastos, Flanagan, Gray and Ruben families for both properties on March 14, 2005, would not reveal his motivation for selling the Dreamland properties.

As Ulmer stated in June and reconfirmed yesterday, his plan is to renovate the movie theater on the first floor and convert the second floor into a ballroom and stage for local events and performing arts groups. On the third floor he would build a restaurant offering moderately priced food with views of the Easy Street basin. He plans to sell the parking lot behind the theater to the Nantucket Islands Land Bank for fair market value to be used as a park.

Running parallel to Ulmer's bid to buy the Dreamland is the campaign by Selectman Michael Kopko, Nantucket Film Festival Founder Jonathan Burkhart and island residents Christy Cure and Susan Carey to collect the necessary 200 signatures - they got more than 350 - to petition the town for a Special Town Meeting at which voters would rule on an article to take the building by eminent domain. That Town Meeting is set for July 26, when voters will take up this issue and two other unrelated articles. Ulmer said he welcomes this kind of support from the town and its residents, who seem to agree with his plan to save the Dreamland from major redevelopment.

If he is successful, Ulmer likes the idea of a deed-restriction placed on the building to permanently protect the movie theater use. He suggested something similar to the conservation restriction that Bartlett's Farm placed on 104 acres of its farmland through the Nantucket Land Council with the community raising $6 million to purchase the development rights.

He said people have offered him money over the last month just for that purpose - from $100 donations to one person who said he would put up $100,000, all good news for a guy who owns the Rose & Crown and Foood for Here and There.

"It just sort of speaks to the level of passion people have to keep the theater there, to keep the Dreamland downtown, to not turn it into retail space or whatever," he said.

Estimated to be worth between $9 and $10 million, the Dreamland's complete renovation could cost up to around $8 million.

"For any one guy to take that on, [I mean], I sell pizza and beer, I don't have

those kind of pockets," Ulmer said. I