Development company interested in buying Penn Theater
The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Butler confirmed Thursday that the Woda Group, a development company based in Westerville, Ohio, is interested in buying the Penn Theater.
Authority officials have been talking with representatives of the company and an offer was discussed by the authority during a recent executive session.
“Although these talks have been productive and the redevelopment authority is actively pursuing a sales agreement with the Woda Group, several issues still need to be resolved before any public action by the Redevelopment Authority,” read a statement issued by the authority at the end of its monthly meeting.
The authority will consider offers on any of its properties, Chairman Fred Reese said.
“For us to get financially and feasibly set, it would be better for us to be out from under it,” he said about the Penn, which the authority acquired in 2009.
Penn Theater Performance Company, a nonprofit group, is still hoping to lease the theater. The authority decided Thursday that it will ask John Evans, city code enforcement officer, to do another walk-through of the building with representatives of the group.
