Baltimore's 1st Mariner bank, which holds a mortgage of some $900,000 on the 70-year-old North Baltimore landmark, announced earlier this month that it would be foreclosing on the theater, after owner Tom Kiefaber had missed several months of scheduled payments. Kiefaber closed the theater March 15, saying he could no longer meet payroll.
"That's cutting it close," said Laura Thul Penza, an architect and member of the Senator Community Trust, a community group looking to raise the $70,000-plus needed to bring the mortgage current and call off the auction. "We are in the process of planning fund-raisers. There's always hope."