By Jorge Casuso
October 14, 2025 -- The fate of the Civic Auditorium could be determined Tuesday night when the City Council decides whether to continue negotiations with an expert group that promises to save the beleaguered landmark.
The item, which was placed on the agenda Friday, has triggered a battle between activists fighting to restore the 65-year-old structure as an entertainment venue and development activists who view the prime site as "a blank slate."
The Exclusive Negotiation Agreement (ENA) ended last Tuesday with Revitalization Partners Group, LLC (RPG), which is proposing to renovate and operate the storied venue that has been shuttered since 2013 and requires major upgrades.
The initial go-ahead to enter into an ENA with the group composed of experts in developing, financing, operating and programming entertainment venues was approved by the Council in July 23, 2024 but was not executed until April 8 of this year, according to a staff report to the Council.
Since then, the RPG development team "has presented only preliminary architectural concepts" and has not submitted "any financial documentation or pro forma demonstrating the project’s financial feasibility," staff wrote.
A "rudimentary financial review" by City staff "suggests that the project, as verbally described, appears economically infeasible without substantial subsidy."
As soon as the staff report was posted Friday, pro-development activists lobbied the Council to remove the Civic's landmark status, end negotiations with RPG and "invite proposals for a 'blank slate' redevelopment scenario."
"The Civic Auditorium sits on prime real estate positioned at the gateway between downtown Santa Monica and the Main Street corridor," Santa Monica Forward wrote in a letter to the Council.
"This land represents one of the city's most valuable untapped assets. The opportunity cost of committing this site to a financially unviable project while the city struggles to balance the budget cannot be justified."
The site, Forward wrote, "is too valuable, and the city's fiscal circumstances are too precarious, to accept an arrangement in which a private developer gains control of prime downtown real estate for $1 per year."
Instead of redeveloping the Civic as a cultural and entertainment venue, the City should explore other far more lucrative uses for "a prime downtown asset worth tens of millions of dollars."
Potential uses could include a much-needed convention center, "hotel development that capitalizes on the site's downtown location" or "mixed-use development including housing that addresses the city's housing shortage."
Forward's letter prompted a sharp response from Save the Civic, the non-profit group leading the effort to restore the shuttered structure as a major performing arts venue.
"The developer group Santa Monica Forward -- which advocates for more development, everywhere, all the time -- just released a hit piece saying Santa Monica 'deserves better' than a fully-restored Civic Auditorium at NO COST TO TAXPAYERS," the group wrote in a blast email.
"They falsely claim that making a deal with the very creditable industry leaders who want to restore the Civic (RPG) would somehow cost Santa Monica money.
"But the fact is, RPG has already committed to financing the rehab and operation of the Civic 100%. And as we’re pretty sure SMForward knows, that commitment would be put in writing when the City negotiates and signs a contract with RPG."
If the Council votes to end negotiations, the Civic "will likely sit abandoned a few more years -- removed from landmark status (as Forward proposes!) -- and replaced with what Forward really wants and even suggests in its hit piece: 'hotel development' or 'mixed-use.'"
"Killing the Civic advances developers’ dystopian dreams -- where every corner, every neighborhood, every street in Santa Monica has either a hotel or massive mixed-used building -- a homogeneous landscape that replaces everything unique in our city."
On Tuesday, the Council will consider three options presented by staff -- approve a six-month extension, grant a three-month extension or end negotiations.
RPG's preliminary plans reviewed by staff, "envision repositioning the Civic as a site for an immersive digital / holographic show theater with live music concerts, award shows, artist residencies and special events with capacity that may range between 2,800 to 3,300 seats."
The proposal "also contemplates" developing 14,000 square feet of new retail and commercial space on the three acre site.
"Of note, through multiple meetings and discussions with the City, RPG has not provided a formal project concept that can be shared publicly," staff said.