Early last year, it looked like everything was in place to save the Garland Theater from fading to black for the last time.
A three-person team passionate about saving the Garland had created a plan with a local developer, who purchased the property from its longtime owner and planned to build apartments in one of its parking lots to help subsidize the historic theater.
A year-and-a-half later, those 44 apartments are nearly finished and ready for tenants.
But while the theater is still chugging along, the property has changed hands (sort of), and the new owner disagrees about what exactly was promised to the theater.
Tyler Arnold, who spearheads the Garland Theater's operations, says he was excited to work with developer Jordan Tampien when the plan to save the theater came together in late 2023 and early 2024. Tampien had just been recognized by the Spokane Preservation Advocates' 2023 Historic Preservation Awards, and promised to help restore some of the theater's crumbling exterior. While being interviewed for a Jan. 11, 2024 story, Tampien told the Inlander he was planning an estimated $500,000 in facade improvements to the now 80-year-old building.
"We're thinking man, this guy's interest aligns right with us," Arnold says.
Arnold worked with Vintage Print + Neon owner Chris Bovey and Garland general manager Jasmine Barnes to rent the space. Arnold and Bovey created Chris and Tyler Save the Garland, a limited liability company, and Tampien gave them the keys in January 2024. By March, Arnold signed a 10-year lease that started in July 2024, after Tampien gave the team the first six months of rent for free to help.
But by September, Tampien sold his stake in the project to business partner Ryan Berg, whose Berg Group had funded the $1.8 million December 2023 purchase under Berg's Garland Acquisitions, LLC. On Sept. 4, 2024, Berg's Cap Garland, LLC acquired the property for $2.8 million and Berg took over the apartment project. Tampien, who is working with Berg on converting the historic Peyton Building on Post Street from offices to apartments, says he was too swamped with projects and needed to step back from the Garland work.
With a shift in ownership, the only promises that matter come down to what's in the lease, Arnold says.
Though Arnold's team has made improvements inside, none have been made to the facade.
Both Tampien and Berg say there was never a concrete promise to put a certain dollar amount into that work, and it's not included in the lease. Still, Berg says he is currently working to get estimates so he can use the contractor from the apartments to make some improvements to the theater's facade in the next month or two. He's working with the city's historic preservation office to ensure any improvements are acceptable.
"I never had anything in writing that said we were going to provide half a million in improvements," Berg says.
"I would've put it in the lease if I was going to give him $500,000 for his building," Tampien confirms.
In the same vein though, Arnold argues that the lease doesn't say the theater will lose all of its parking due to the new apartments, which it has.
The lease does, however, say that the theater's rent and fees "shall be proportionally adjusted in the event of any adjustment to the premises', building's or property's rentable floor area."
After months of arguing over what the lease promises, Chris and Tyler Save the Garland sued Garland Acquisitions in Spokane County Superior Court on Jan. 2, alleging the lease terms have been broken.
RENT AND PARKING
In addition to base rent (currently $5,150 per month), the theater pays a 75% share of the monthly fees to keep up and insure the common areas. The other 25% is split among other tenants on the property.
At least one of those tenants — Jodi's Broom Closet, a crystal shop which was upstairs from the theater — closed after the parking was blocked off for the construction project. Though his neon sign shop also lost a couple employee parking spaces, Bovey says he moved to a new space on Monroe and Northwest Boulevard in part to avoid a new lease that would've doubled his rent.
With the 44 apartments nearly tripling the rentable square footage on the lot, Arnold argues the theater's rent and fees should be adjusted down.
"What matters is what's in our lease," Arnold says. "Our lease says they don't have the right to deprive the premises of substantial benefit, including the parking and common areas. Then, it states if they do any adjustment to the rentable square footage of the property, they then must adjust base rents and [fees] proportionately."
Berg and Tampien, however, maintain that the rent was set lower than market rate from the very beginning to give Arnold the benefits up front.
"We provided substantial incentives at the beginning for them to get going," Berg says. "We want the best for the theater and that's why we gave them six months free rent and 50% market rate, and allowed them a great runway to get started."
But Arnold says the initial $5,000 per month rent originated with a deal he and Bovey had started working out with the theater's previous owner, which Tampien then agreed to honor. The lease's clause about adjusting the rent and fees when the rentable space changes was included so the apartments would subsidize the theater, Arnold says.
"It's ridiculous they're trying to claim that the subsidies of the theater are the rent they already offered," Arnold says. "If that was the subsidy, wouldn't they have added that verbiage to the lease?"
Tampien, meanwhile, says the rent under the previous owner was $10,000 per month, and he's frustrated that Arnold is frustrated.
"The initial idea with it was, 'Let's keep the rent low so you can operate,' and he said he was gonna work on things in the interior and get grants to help make the improvements inside," Tampien says. "From the beginning, he knew we were building the apartments — that's why I discounted the rent so much. He's paying less than you pay for like an industrial building for the square footage."
Arnold maintains that the lease was written specifically to adjust the rent later, and since Berg doesn't agree, his only option was to ask the court to weigh in.
Once the apartment project is done, the remaining parking lot on the property, which has been housing construction equipment, will reopen. With those roughly 44 parking spaces shared with the apartment tenants, Arnold doesn't think the theater's customers will get to use those spaces very much.
"We are dealing with the public blowback of them taking away the parking lot," Arnold says. "We are the face of this even though it's got nothing to do with us."
On June 6, Arnold announced the theater had secured evening and weekend customer parking in multiple nearby businesses' parking lots, including outside Houk Chiropractic and The Engraver trophy shop (Mon-Fri after 6 pm, all day Saturday and Sunday), Garland Animal Clinic (Mon-Fri after 6 pm, Saturday after noon, all day Sunday), and Mark's Guitar Shop (Sundays).
REPAIRS AND GRANTS
The other major points of contention are over who is responsible for specific repairs to the theater.
The lease states the tenant shall accept the building and needed improvements "as-is, where-is," and is responsible for performing work to bring the building into satisfactory condition.
"We rented them the space as is," Tampien says. "We said, 'Hey, the cool part is you can build it out,' and then after that we would give him all of the business equipment for no additional cost."
Arnold says the theater has needed its fire sprinkler system extended, and repairs for a sewage pipe issue. The owners paid for those repairs, but Arnold's ledger of monthly bills continues to list those items (nearly $9,700 for the rooter service and more than $5,400 for fire suppression work) as something he owes.
"We're getting no advocacy and no support," Arnold says. "The only thing I see happening is on a long enough timeline, we're going out of business."
Berg, who previously worked as a civil engineer and has substantial grant writing experience, says he's offered numerous times to apply for grants to help upgrade the theater, but Arnold hasn't been willing to work with him.
Arnold says he doesn't want to simply hand over grant leads because he's not sure he can trust the money would be spent at the theater unless he's the one applying.
The theater is currently undergoing an energy efficiency audit thanks to a $35,000 grant Arnold received from Avista. Arnold hopes to apply for upgrades to the HVAC system and other aging infrastructure in the theater once that audit is complete.
LAWSUIT
With the civil case not set to go to trial until next February, and ongoing disputes over the bills, Arnold says his lawyer proposed the theater pay its rent into an escrow account until the matter is resolved in court. Arnold says ownership did not agree to that, so he opted to withhold rent in March in hopes it would force some resolution. Near the end of March, the theater received a five-day pay or vacate notice.
On April 1, as Arnold says he was on his way with a check, Berg texted Bovey, "Hey Chris, I don't know how up to speed you are with everything. We need the lawsuit to stop and go away today. You guys are late on rent and CAMS from March. We served you an eviction notice on Thursday. Today is the final day to pay. If the lawsuit is not dropped today by end of day we will have no choice but to evict you guys. I'm sorry but I want to work with you I want you guys to stay there but you cannot be threatening to sue us. Please talk to Tyler. Time is of the essence. If we don't have confirmation by 5 PM we will have to proceed."
Arnold was shocked.
"That is against the law," he says. "That is landlord retaliation."
When asked about the text, which the Inlander shared a screenshot of, Berg says by email, "You indicated that Tyler was knowingly withholding rent. His lease requires payment within five days of the start of each month. We had already given him ample time to pay — approximately one month. The pay-or-vacate notice was issued per the lease terms, and the text I sent was simply to inform Chris and Tyler of the urgency to get this resolved and honor the agreement that was signed."
Arnold continues to pay rent.
Berg adds that his team is very excited about the apartment project and the opportunity to attract more people to the Garland District who will shop at the businesses there and help the area thrive.
"We're also thankful for the City's assistance in supporting the project by removing parking requirements, approving a parking-to-people sales tax exemption, and granting a multifamily tax exemption," Berg writes. "These incentives are critical in enabling us to provide much-needed workforce housing with market rate rents for the community."
Arnold, meanwhile, says he hopes the court can help resolve the disagreements.
"We feel like we're being wronged," Arnold says. "We're trying to save the theater, plain and simple." ♦
