Monte Rio theater sold to film enthusiasts

A new generation of Bay Area hipsters is taking over Monte Rio's quirky, countercultural Rio Theater, with the blessing of retiring former owners Don and Suzi Schaffert.

A 25-member ownership group pooled resources to buy the theater for $599,000 after hearing about a successful fundraising campaign last summer that allowed the Schafferts to upgrade the theater's aging projector.

The fundraising drive, through crowdfunding website Kickstarter, achieved widespread publicity when Hollywood actor Zach Braff, of "Scrubs" and "Garden State" fame, helped keep the theater's lights on with a donation.

The Rio, which the Schafferts have owned since 1993, has been a gathering place for west county residents since 1949, when it opened inside what was then a quite new World War II-era Quonset hut. The Schafferts turned down multiple offers for the property, which has been on the market for four years, they said.

"Most people wanted to come in and get rid of what we built," Don Schaffert said. "(The new owners) just absolutely fell in love with it. All they want to do is just advance what we've done here."

Derek Fagerstrom, 38, of Cazadero, is one of the group's eight founding members and visited the theater with two of the other co-owners on Saturday.

"We did really come together with a shared love of theater," Fagerstrom said. "We all were looking at each other and said, 'We love this place.'"

Rather than step in and immediately shake things up, the group intends to have an open dialogue with the community to find out what changes, aside from the obvious improvements to the roof and the heater, they seek.

"We're looking at every part of the property as a place to do fun things," Fagerstrom said. "Even without trying we've been getting feedback. The community has a stake in it, and they've been forthcoming."

For now, the main focus is to keep the operation running and continue the traditions of the theater. Aside from the Schafferts, who are helping with the transition but will eventually retire, the rest of the employees will stay on under the new ownership.

"The most important thing is making sure the lights are still on and that this great team gets their paycheck," said Dermot Hikisch, another investor.

Several members of the eclectic, young ownership group of artists, entrepreneurs and nonprofit types became friends through Hub Bay Area, a co-working space with offices in Berkeley and San Francisco that attracts professionals committed to socially responsible business. To buy the theater, they created a company called Rio Property LLC, which is registered in Delaware and California, Hikisch said.

Aside from the venture in Monte Rio, Fagerstrom and his wife, Lauren Smith, are creative directors of critically acclaimed Pop-Up Magazine, a live magazine event featuring writers, photographers, artists and filmmakers. They used to own Curiosity Shoppe, a boutique that was on San Francisco's popular Valencia Street corridor until it closed last year.

Hikisch, the director of new partnerships at Sungevity, a solar company based in Oakland, and Inder Comar, an attorney, are among the other investors.

"One of the things that attracted me to this place is the local resiliency," Comar said. "When you see a successful Kickstarter campaign, it's a great barometer of how the community is doing."

The ownership group, which includes an accountant and an engineer, has a wide range of skills and experience from which to draw as it steers the Rio into a new generation. Hikisch wants the company to go solar. Fagerstrom is envisioning events like weddings or screenings featuring food paired to match the theme of the movie.

Always a magnet to artists of all types, the theater on Saturday drew visitor Karin Faber, 50, of Santa Rosa. She was shooting a photo of a flat cardboard cutout gingerbread-looking man in front of the theater.

"I think it's great," Faber said. "So many landmarks go by the wayside, and for this small town it's an awesome place to go."

Kickstarter campaigns helped keep dozens of theaters open during the "go digital or go dark" days, including the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Cloverdale's Clover Theater was able to reopen, thanks to a similar fundraising drive. A search of the site shows 75 successful theater-related Kickstarter campaigns in the past year.

"Suzi and I look at each other in amazement that we got this far, and we actually lived through it," said Sherry Pimsler, the 68-year-old Monte Rio resident who spearheaded the Rio's Kickstarter campaign. "And as a result, it drew this interest."

The fundraising drive enabled the Rio to buy digital equipment to replace its old movie projectors, after movie studios announced they would no longer distribute first-run movies on traditional 35 mm film. Ever since the theater switched to a digital projector, Don Schaffert, who loved the old-fashioned machines, hasn't gone back into the projection room.

"I just wish them well," Don Schaffert said. "I hope they have as much fun with the place as we have. It's a place to create memories."

(You can reach Staff Writer Cathy Bussewitz at 521-5276 or cathy.bussewitz@pressdemocrat.com.)