The Rio Theatre's fundraising deadline has been extended

After it seemed like the campaign to save The Rio Theatre was down to its final hours on Monday night, supporters of the campaign have a little more time on their hands to raise the remaining funds.

Late on Monday night, Operators of The Rio announced that they had been granted a deadline extension to raise the funds needed to buy the East Vancouver performance venue and save it from being sold and redeveloped.

Now, those behind the efforts to purchase the building have until April 16 to raise $1 million to do just that.

Should the effort be successful, the deadline for purchase is May 7th, “which will give us enough time to get all the legal work done,” The Rio’s operators said on Facebook.

News that the building was for sale broke in late January, and since then a slew of supporters (including Kevin Smith, who played two shows, and Ryan Reynolds who personally donated) have put forth efforts to reach their fundraising goal.

An online fundraising campaign has been in progress as well, with $387,825 raised at the time of this writing.

According to a recent CBRE listing, the 50 ft. wide, 6,350 sq. ft. site has “strong assembly potential” for “high density residential” spaces and could potentially accommodate a building up to 10 storeys in height, based on the municipal government’s 2016-approved Grandview-Woodland Community Plan.

However, the plan also stipulates that the City will “consider applications for additional height, density, and relaxations on the Rio Theatre and sites directly adjacent to it, in order to support renewal and expansion of the cultural facility.”

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