Theater Operators Hope Hospitality Grants Are Enough To Reopen Next Year: This Has Been A Very Long 10 Months – CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) There will be large concerts or events this New Years Eve, but help was on the way for Chicagos independent performance venues.

With no events since March, many of those venues have closed or are barely hanging on.

As CBS 2s Tara Molina reported Thursday evening, the owners of the venues the latter category still have to put money into the waiting game as just keeping venues maintained is costing thousands of dollars a month. But Molina is told new grant money will help them stick around until they can open again.

The Patio Theater has been in operation since 1927 at 6008 W. Irving Park Rd. in the Portage Park neighborhood. Its centennial isnt too many years off.

(The) Patio Theater is a treasure, said Chris Bauman.

It is a treasure that Bauman restored as a music venue, because he couldnt stand to see it go. But holding onto history in 2020

This has been a very long 10 months now. Closed down, Bauman said. Weve still had to pay mortgage, utilities, insurance. Weve just been doing the best we can to stay afloat and be able to open our doors again.

Now, a light at the end of the tunnel.

Patio Theater is one of 100 venues awarded $10,000 through the citys Performance Venue Relief Program. And theres even more help on the horizon. Bauman was one of thousands of venue owners across the country pushing for The Save our Stages Act, just passed as part of the latest COVID-19 relief legislation signed into law, setting $15 billion dollars aside to help venues like the Patio Theater.

Its going to allow us to get caught up, Bauman said.

But after 10 months without a penny, no way to open for many more, a question lingers. Will it be enough?

To be determined, I think, Bauman said. But I will tell you its enough, for now, to get us open again.

The Small Business Administration will decide how to divvy up the Save our Stages relief money, with operators applying for those grants, like they have for SBA loans. The city grants were funded through an arts foundation and the CARES act.

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Theater Operators Hope Hospitality Grants Are Enough To Reopen Next Year: This Has Been A Very Long 10 Months - CBS Chicago