Two management companies face a deadline of April 22 to submit final proposals to run the Dawn Theater, the TIFA Targeted Development Committee decided in a meeting March 26.

“Ideally, we’ll have proposals that we can discuss, negotiate and execute in the short term,” TIFA board member Andrew Gelzer told The Collegian. “TIFA is very eager to deliver the Dawn Theater into an awesome operator’s hands so we can get that back to contributing to the downtown’s economic activity.”

The theater’s previous management group, CL Real Estate Development, backed out of its 10-year lease agreement in February 2025, leaving the Dawn Theater Governance Board to find new management for the property, The Collegian previously reported.

Gelzer said both potential candidates are local, with one from Hudson and one from Jonesville. He said while several parties have shown interest, none have submitted proposals.

Chair of the Dawn Theater Governance Board James Brandon said the space has been unable to host private events due to the current lack of management. But, Brandon said, the Friends of the Dawn Theater have hosted public events.

“With a manager, we would have a professional that is able to have public events and also private events,” Brandon said. “And of course, the key toward making the place eventually profitable is going to be those private events. It’s coming, but it’s just not there quite yet.”

Mary Wolfram, chairwoman of the Friends of the Dawn Theater board said the group has a use agreement with TIFA that will allow the nonprofit to work with the incoming management group to put on public events.

“The relationship hopefully will be the same where we — and our use agreement specifies this — book dates for our events in there on a first-come, first-served basis,” Wolfram said. “And hopefully, TIFA will indicate that to the private management company, and the new management company would know that going in, that there is this organization called Friends of the Dawn, and we raise money for the theater, so they should see us as an asset.”

Wolfram said the Friends of the Dawn Theatre recently received a $20,000 Michigan Arts and Culture Council grant to go toward event operations.

Under new management, Brandon said the theater will offer private events that are profitable for the management team but will continue to serve the community through public events.

“It’ll really be a big deal when we have an actual management entity and we can get back to hosting events on a regular basis,” Brandon said.