After over a year of controversial legal battles surrounding the Adventure Church’s potential purchase of the Tower Theatre, Fresno’s City Council voted on April 21 to purchase the historic theater for $6.5 million.
The City Council approved the purchase 4-3, with council members Garry Bredefeld, Luis Chavez and Mike Karbassi voting against it; and Miguel Arias, Nelson Esparza, Tyler Maxwell and Esmeralda Soria in favor.
“Overall, this is excellent news,” said Jaguar Bennett, member of the Save the Tower Theatre Demonstration Committee. “This is a practical solution to preserving the Tower Theatre as a historical, cultural and economic asset for the city of Fresno and the whole San Joaquin Valley. City ownership will ensure that the Tower Theatre remains a working theater available to the whole community.”
Adventure Church has not responded to requests for comments at this time but Anthony Flores, who founded Adventure Church with wife Mandy in 2010, did share a message on the church’s social media accounts.
“We didn’t win the vote. We lost that, and we knew we would. Let me tell you what we won: I have watched this church be tested and tried. We have been put through hell. Yet we have preserved. We push forward, and have been forged in fire,” he said.
The message ended with an invitation for readers to attend a church service at Adventure Church.
The committee has been protesting the initial purchase of the Tower Theatre by the Adventure Church on Sunday mornings since January 2021, but last Sunday was a celebration. Bennet said it’s unsure if the protest will continue.
“We are continuing to watch this situation closely, and we will continue to advocate for the interests of the Tower District community. But what that advocacy will look like in the future will depend on the needs of the community,” he said.
Prior to the vote, supporters of either the Adventure Church or the Save the Tower Theatre Demonstration Committee were able to make public comments. Flores accused the city of racial discrimination.
“It must be nice to be a white, middle-class man in America and in [the] Tower District, because I’m getting kicked out, and dude is getting a sweetheart of a loan — your taxpayer dollars,” Flores said in the April 18 episode of the “Not Offended Podcast,” featured on the Adventure Church’s YouTube account.
“If anything, Anthony Flores and Adventure Church based their entire strategy on capitalizing on the extraordinary privileges that are granted to conversative evangelical churches. No other religious group or secular organization would have been allowed to break the law for over a year and get away with it,” Bennett said in response when asked about Flores’ comments.
The Save the Tower committee accused the Adventure Church, a Foursquare church, of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments and referenced old posts on its websites with biblical passages that condemn homosexuality and gender transitioning.
The Tower Theatre has been seen as a haven for the LGBTQ+ community within Fresno, according to Bennett in a previous interview.
Questions remain for how the Tower Theatre will be managed under city ownership.
“I would like to see the Tower Theatre managed by a community-based organization; ideally a new local arts nonprofit organization with a board that has substantial representation of Fresno’s artist community. That would be a much better and more responsible manager of the theater than an out-of-town promotions company,” Bennett said.
