It's a three-way race to manage Chatham's Capitol Theatre.
A deadline for requests for proposal to take over the facility's day-to-day operations closed yesterday, and two outside groups submitted proposals.
Purchasing Officer with the municipality Jennifer Scherle says they include Chatham-based theatre company Studio Black, and Jones Entertainment Group, based out of London.
The municipality will also prepare a proposal of its own.
Community Development General Manager Bob Crawford says a group of people from both within and outside the municipality will be tasked with assessing each proposal based on what's best for the community.
"Not just in terms of the overall cost, but also what's best for the community in terms of continuing with the revitalization of our downtown, which of course the theatre plays an integral part in that," he says.
While timelines are not set in stone, a recommendation to council is hoped by sometime this fall.
Crawford says the goal of the RFP was to see what options are available, after St. Clair College ended ties with the theatre in June due to financial straits.
The municipality, which currently owns the theatre, has been running the space on King St. W ever since, and municipal staff want to give council an idea of what keeping operations internal would entail.
"We've been very careful to keep that separate and distinct from the other RFP responses that we received," says Crawford. "Council is going to have a very fulsome discussion about this. They're going to have a chance to take a look at a variety of options."
He adds no option is off the table.
"If we did have a purchaser come forward that had an attractive model that they were proposing, certainly we would give that due consideration," Crawford says. "I guess our key concern is that the theatre will continue to operate as a theatre."
