Ulmer ends quest to buy the Dreamland
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Last Friday afternoon, Rose & Crown and Foood for Here and There owner Rick Ulmer announced that he is no longer trying to buy the Dreamland.

Citing the prohibitively high purchase and renovation costs for securing and rebuilding the 177- year-old theater at 17 South Water St., Ulmer said he could not get more than two committed investors to

help him buy the property.

"Just the price is too high when you look at the purchase cost and all the numbers I got to renovate it, you're going to throw the cost up too much," said Ulmer.

Sources close to The Nantucket Independent said that Dreamland Theater owner Haim Zahavi is asking $9 million for the building and its two lots totaling .29 of an acre, which altogether are assessed by the town at $5.8 million. Add to that Article 1 sponsor and real estate appraiser H. Flint Ranney's estimate that Ulmer's plan to renovate the movie theater - including a second floor ballroom and performing arts stage and a third floor restaurant - would cost as much as $8 million. Ulmer, then, could have been looking at total costs of around $17 million.

Whether that is the actual number or not, the price was just too high for Ulmer.

"For me, the balance was to scale the project, keeping it to theater, the ballroom and restaurant," he said. "By doing that you reduce the square footage and the cost goes up and it just costs too much for an ongoing concern."

Zahavi purchased the building for $6 million from the Anastos, Flanagan, Gray and Ruben families on March 14, 2005. Over the last two years, he secured approvals from the Planning Board, Historic District Commission, Conservation Commission and the state's Architectural Access Board, but not the building permits he needed to get going on reconstructing the aging movie house.

Although the beleaguered Zahavi was closing in this spring on the permit he needed from the Building Department to put a new foundation under the theater, replace part of the first floor and rebuild the concession stand in hopes of opening for movies for at least part of 2007, he ran afoul of the town for not opening the theater for the 2006 season.

With Ulmer out of the game, and no one stepping up to buy the theater from Zahavi, tomorrow night's vote on whether the town should take the property by eminent domain becomes all the more crucial for the salvation of movies on South Water Street. Special Town Meeting petition leader and Selectman Michael Kopko is likely to amend Article 1 to rework its acquisition language, as the Board of Selectmen is not in favor of the taking idea (see related story, page 1).

"Obviously, if Rick were still in play, I think we would be supporting Rick's effort like we had all along," said Kopko. "Going forward with the Town Meeting with a lot of effort sort of backstops his effort now that he is not buying the Dreamland and that sort of changes our tack that we need to buy the Dreamland."

On June 14, Ulmer announced that he was working on an agreement to purchase the Dreamland from Zahavi. He also said that he would diverge from Zahavi's plans to include a bistro on the mezzanine level, an enhanced stage for the performing arts community, four luxury condominiums on the second and third floors, a restaurant on the back parking lot, and a parking garage beneath that.

Over the last month or so, Ulmer worked to find other investors with deep enough pockets who shared his vision for reviving the Dreamland. He even secured an extension from Zahavi to work beyond a July 16 deadline to come

up with the money, but to no avail. I