Prince Music Theater averts a Sheriff’s sale

The drama at the Prince Music Theater in Center City is fast reaching a crescendo.

Common Pleas Judge Idee C. Fox on Tuesday denied a petition filed by the Prince's operators to prevent it from going on the auction block. The ruling cleared the way for TDBank, the holder of the Prince's mortgages, to put the Chestnut Street theater up for sheriff's sale on July 13.

But two hours later, the theater says, it received a temporary reprieve: Because TDBank failed to advertise the property, the sheriff's office postponed the sale, according to Marjorie Samoff, the Prince's producing director.

"Rules of civil procedure require that it be listed three times before it's sold," Samoff said. "We have a stay against advertising that began in January." Sheriff's office officials did not return phone calls Tuesday.

At one point in May 2009, the building was listed for sheriff's sale, but was removed from the list as negotiations with the bank continued. According to Samoff, a judge blocked an attempt to sell the theater in October.

Last week, TDBank filed an emergency motion to win permission to sell the 446-seat theater to commercial bidders. The non-profit - which has become a film venue for the summer, running Toy Story 3 to pay the bills - owes about $4.83 million in long-term loans to the Canadian-based bank.

Local theatergoers began to hear rumors of the Prince's troubled finances in 2008, when it announced and then virtually abandoned a full producing season.

Samoff said the turbulence began when theater officials discovered a bookkeeper forging checks. In response, the mortgage holder, then Commerce Bank, took control of the daily operations, and froze the theater's accounts.

Already under pressure from the rough economy, the theater in April 2008 negotiated with Commerce to reduce its $43,000 monthly mortgage payments to $27,000.

The next month TDBank bought Commerce and told Samoff that the theater would have to pay the full $43,000 or the bank would foreclose.

On Christmas Eve 2008, TDBank secured a judgment against the Prince. "It was equivalent to putting us in debtor's prison," Samoff said. "No foundation could fund us." On New Year's Eve, the bank sent an appraiser to look over the building to prepare it for sale for use as condos and retail shops.

Intensive negotiations followed, Samoff said. The theater struck a deal with the bank in mediation with a retired federal judge in April 2009. The bank's home office in Toronto did not accept the settlement, Samoff said.

A spokeswoman for TDBank said it, and before it Commerce Bank, had long supported the Prince.

"We are hopeful the situation can be resolved," said Rebecca S. Acevedo. "We have been working through the courts to address this issue and cannot comment further as these matters are in litigation."