The Novato Theater Site Finally Has a Plan. It Isn't a Theater.

"It'll look very contemporary, although exactly the same as it was in '46." Steve Rempe, a Novato Theater board member, told the Marin Independent Journal that in August 2016. Crews from Novato-based Arntz Builders were driving piers at 924 Grant Avenue at the time, and the restored movie house was supposed to open by spring 2017.

The plan called for a 235-seat screening room on the ground floor and a 50-seat theater upstairs. The front would nearly match the original, historic marquee and Art Deco "Novato" sign included.

Ten years later, the City of Novato has approved something else for the site. On September 10, 2026, the Community Development Department conditionally approved a new three-story building with eight homes and 2,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space facing Grant Avenue. The theater idea didn't lose for lack of affection. For more than a decade, a deed restriction made a theater the only thing the property could be. Once those rules came off, a different set of rules decided what happens next.

A $50,000 price that told the whole story

The Novato Theater opened in 1946 with "The Jolson Story" and closed in 1991. The first restoration campaign started in 1995. It didn't raise enough money, and the site went to the city in 2004.

The city later sold the property to the Novato Theater nonprofit for $50,000. The Marin IJ's 2024 reporting dates that sale to 2010, and its 2022 coverage gives 2012. An appraisal by Art Gimmy International explains that price. Without restrictions on its use, the site was worth $445,900, or $395,000 after $50,000 in demolition costs. With a deed restriction limiting it to theater use, the appraiser called that use uneconomic and valued the site at $50,000.

So the restriction took about $345,000 off the land's value on paper. It kept the theater dream alive, and it also meant that anyone who owned the parcel had to make a theater pencil out.

The decade after the walls came down

The nonprofit made a serious run at it. Here's how the following years went, in the order the Marin IJ reported them:

1. 2016. The building was gutted down to its side walls, with the front wall reinforced. Executive director Christina Stroeh said the group had explained in every presentation that the building was coming down to two walls, because it was unstable, didn't meet seismic standards, and wasn't accessible to people with disabilities.
2. 2016 onward. The group spent about $1.4 million on the site. That included $985,000 for utility connections, demolition, and a new ADA-compliant foundation, plus $415,000 for architects and engineers.
3. 2018. A request for a $3 million city line of credit failed on a 2–2 City Council vote.
4. Late 2022. The nonprofit announced it had run out of money after a decade of fundraising and planned to sell and dissolve. Its board blamed the pandemic and rising costs.
5. 2023. The city agreed to lift the theater-only deed restriction. In exchange, it would get most of the sale proceeds.

The campaign had real backing. Board member Keith Greggor said the group raised close to $2 million, including $300,000 from Marin County and large gifts from the Margaret E. Haas Fund and the Marin Community Foundation.

Why the sale came in at about half the appraisal

Once the restriction was lifted, the property went on the market at $750,000. A 2022 appraisal by Semple Appraisals had put it at $720,000. Nobody bought at that price. In 2024, Matthew Burns, owner of Sandbank Construction, and his wife Julia Burns paid about $375,000 for the 6,370-square-foot parcel.

The broker who represented the nonprofit explained to the Marin IJ why the earlier work made the site harder to sell:

"That was all very specific to a theater. So anybody thinking of buying it had to take into account they might have to demolish some of that in order to make a new project work."

The city had put more than $1 million into the site over three decades. Under its agreement with the nonprofit, it received net proceeds of $229,691, according to City Manager Amy Cunningham. The agreement also guaranteed the theater group an extra $100,000 to pay its creditors.

At the time of the sale, the Burnses described a café on the ground floor with three apartments and an office upstairs. That plan has since grown.

What the city approved on September 10

Sandbank Construction filed its application, DR2025-396, on October 7, 2025. The parcel is zoned Downtown Core Retail, with the Downtown Overlay and the Historic Overlay on top. The approval letter is addressed to Burns at Sandbank's office at 1127 Grant Avenue, a few blocks up the same street.

The city approved the project under two state laws, the Housing Accountability Act and State Density Bonus Law. Those laws explain how a five-unit base plan became eight homes:

• Base project. Four apartments plus one accessory dwelling unit.
• Affordable units. One home set aside for rent to a very-low-income household and one for a moderate-income household, each equal to 20% of the base density.
• Bonus. The project qualified for four bonus homes and used three, for a total of eight.
• Concessions. The city relaxed four standards: window dimensions, maximum ADU size, upper-story setback, and minimum outdoor open space.
• Waivers. The city also waived standards covering trash storage location, parking space dimensions, drive aisle width, and loading space, among others, because strict compliance could physically prevent the project from being built.

The letter finds that no further environmental review is required, because the project fits the density and floor-area limits in the city's General Plan for the Downtown Core. The city's project page still says CEQA review is being determined. The September 10 letter is the newer document. The letter also states that the director's approval is final and can't be appealed administratively.

Put that next to the history. The theater project needed fundraising, a council vote on credit, and years of donations. The housing project got through with one administrative letter, because state law requires cities to approve qualifying housing that meets objective standards.

What's still unknown

The design plans, revised by Rex McLean Architect in June 2026 in response to design review comments, mark the existing concrete walls to stay at the ground-floor level. Some of the 1946 shell may survive inside the new building. The elevations call for removing the concrete walls above a marked line. The approved materials don't say anything about keeping the marquee or the "Novato" sign that the 2016 plan promised.

Other open questions:

• Tenant. None named. The approval describes the ground floor only as commercial space, and the café from 2024 isn't a confirmed tenant.
• Timeline. The approval materials don't give a construction start or finish date. Before a grading or building permit can be issued, the conditions require an affordable housing agreement and more construction details and agency sign-offs on noise, drainage, sewer, and water.

Where the theater idea still has an address

The other historic movie house in town is still standing. The Hamilton Theater on South Palm Drive was added in 1938 for service members and their families at Hamilton Air Force Base. It seated more than 300 people, hosted acts including Abbott and Costello, and ran until 1994. As of August 2026, the Marin IJ described it as in disrepair and a renovation target of the Hamilton Arts Foundation.

In a May 2026 post, the Foundation described a proposed arts town center at roughly $30 million and said fundraising would follow City Council approval. Its cost breakdown is labeled as 2022 figures, so the current number could be different. The Hamilton plan depends on donations and a council decision, the same path the Novato Theater took.

Grant Avenue this month

The plywood at 924 Grant will be part of a busy October downtown. The Nostalgia Days cruise runs Friday, October 9, from 5 to 7 p.m. On Saturday, October 10, the car show fills 10 blocks of Grant Avenue with more than 300 cars from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Downtown Novato Community Farmers' Market runs Tuesdays from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sherman Avenue between Grant and De Long through October 27. Día de los Muertos is at the Civic Green on October 24 from 3 to 6 p.m. Downtown Safe Trick or Treat runs October 31 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Other projects along the avenue are also moving. Novato expanded its matching storefront-improvement grant from downtown to businesses citywide, with $100,000 set aside for the 2026 cycle. A Dutch Bros proposed for 1727 Grant Avenue passed design review in February. The city describes a 1,025-square-foot shop with a dual-lane drive-through. For more on how downtown has been changing, our late-summer look at Novato covers the new indoor spots opening for fall, and our Novato neighborhood page has the wider view.

If you own a home or property near downtown Novato and want to know how projects like 924 Grant Avenue could affect your block, John Hendricks is glad to go over the city filings with you. Schedule a local market consultation, and we'll start with what's approved and what's still only on paper.