Rialto loses lease to owner of Roxy theater

<p>The Rialto Cinemas Lakeside, which became known in the last decade for independent, art house cinema and frequent community fund-raisers, is losing its lease to the company that owns the Roxy Stadium 14 and Airport Cinemas.</p><p>The Rialto's lease for the Summerfield Road theater will end Aug. 31.</p><p>“I'm in shock,” said Ky Boyd, the Rialto's proprietor. “I'm dismayed. I'm disappointed.”</p><p>The announcement Wednesday left leaders of community groups wondering what will happen to their future fund-raisers planned for the Rialto venue.</p><p>“I can tell you that we could not have asked for a better community partner,” said Beth Goodman, executive director of the Jewish Community Center, Sonoma County, which produces an annual Jewish film festival at the Rialto. “I am very deeply saddened that they will be leaving this location.”</p><p>She added that the film festival will continue “no matter what.”</p><p>Dan Tocchini, head of the company that will take over the theater on Sept. 1 ,said he will keep the art house format and will welcome fund-raisers there.</p><p>“We will do the same, if not more, in community involvement than they have” said Tocchini, CEO of the SR Entertainment Group. The Rialto owners “have done a great job running the theater,” Tocchini said, and his company intends “a seamless transition” for both moviegoers and community groups.</p><p>The Rialto has leased the theater for nearly 10 years. Among other events, it has provided free movies for Slater Middle School as an incentive to get students to do extra reading of literature.</p><p>Tocchini, who was reached at a theater convention in Las Vegas, said he lost the same theater's lease a decade ago to Boyd. Now he is about to regain control.</p><p>Boyd said he plans to find another movie house and to draw his “loyal audience” to the new location.</p><p>Until then, “we're going to take our brand on the road,” he said. He plans to find a temporary location for such Rialto presentations as the Metropolitan Opera Live and London's National Theatre Live.</p><p>Melissa Kelley, the past president of the Sonoma County Public Library Foundation, said the Rialto has hosted the group's annual Chocolate and Cinema fund-raiser for eight years.</p><p>“He has been so generous to us for so many years, and I feel a loyalty to him,” she said of Boyd. “I would follow Ky wherever he would go.”</p><p>Tocchini, who said his father opened Sonoma County's first “talkie theater” in 1924 off Railroad Square, maintained his company has run many art house formats at theaters over the years.</p><p>Boyd, however, noted that Tocchini “could have operated an art house theater for years” but didn't choose to do so at his Third Street Cinemas.</p><p>“I don't believe that he can do what I do,” Boyd said.</p>