Riverbank’s Del Rio Theater sells for $175,000

The iconic Del Rio Theater – a once-proud building whose prior ownership transaction brought embarrassment to city leaders – has been purchased by a Modesto restaurateur with a vision for a piano bar and banquet hall with room left for other shops and offices.

Tony Zaia of Turlock agreed to pay $175,000 for the landmark 1940s-era property, which city leaders had purchased a decade ago for $1.7 million before learning of its structural and asbestos problems. Zaia will call the project Del Rio City Center, he said, and expects it eventually will provide 40 or 50 jobs.

Although many expected to see the long-vacant, dilapidated building bulldozed someday, it’s worth saving, Zaia said Wednesday. A previous prospective buyer for the distressed property at 3300 Atchison St. had canceled a deal when the cost of demolition was deemed excessive.

“People here locally have a lot of history with the building, so we decided to keep it,” Zaia said.

Previous city leaders once had grand hopes of restoring the Del Rio as a downtown arts hub, but grossly overpaid before realizing true costs of shoring up and renovating the building.

“I think it’s fabulous,” Mayor Richard O’Brien said of the sale, announced Wednesday. “When it gets refurbished, it’s going to be a good gateway to downtown, and a long-overdue stimulus to economic growth that can happen all around it.”

“During the night, it’s pretty slow in that area, so hopefully this will bring some action to match the nickname of the city,” Zaia said, evoking Riverbank’s “City of Action” moniker.

Zaia, 51, owns two Wetzel’s Pretzels eateries in Modesto – one each upstairs and downstairs in Modesto’s Vintage Faire Mall – and another in Merced, and a second-floor coffee kiosk called Code C Café in Modesto’s Kaiser hospital.

A piano bar serving wine with live music would greet visitors at Del Rio’s historic entrance, Zaia said, and the banquet hall could be rented for weddings or corporate events. He envisions a half-dozen other businesses in rented spaces, including a deli or bakery and offices.

The transaction also gives an adjacent mechanic’s shack and parking lot to Zaia, who said he’ll raze that building and erect another for use by nonprofit organizations.

The most recent listing price for the Del Rio’s 15,554 square feet was $499,000, according to online real estate sources.

The much lower selling price reflects the work that will have to be done to update the deteriorating building, said Paul Baxter. The retired Modesto deputy city manager sits on the Riverbank Designated Local Authority, an agency appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to succeed Riverbank’s redevelopment agency; the city was among seven in California that walked away from massive debt when redevelopment agencies were abolished in 2012.

“It’s been vacant for so long, and it’s right in the middle of downtown,” Baxter said. “Something needed to be done, and we found somebody who would.”

“It’s a great little theater,” said O’Brien, 64, who was raised in Modesto but ventured to Riverbank, where his father was a schoolteacher, for movies now and then.

Said Zaia: “We’re pretty excited about it.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Riverbank’s Del Rio Theater sells for $175,000."