There used to be a popular program in the early days of television called, The Twight Zone. Rod Serlings signature opening statement was Imagine, if you will and then he would describe the setup for that evenings episode.

Imagine, if you will, that you could see into the future and predict the success or failure of the Rivoli renovation project. The actual plan has been a well-guarded secret, but the $5 million project has been promoted as the future hub of economic activity on Main Street.

Last week, I received a phone call from a developer, who had invested in a similar project in The Dalles. The Granada Theater was built around the same time as the Rivoli and the city had purchased the theater, put on a new roof and helped promote it.

The main difference between the two theaters is that the Granada has beautiful Moorish architecture and has been occupied off and on for the last 25 years.

I emailed the city manager, Nolan Young, who then arranged a meeting with the head of community development in The Dalles, Dan Durow, who has held that position for over 25 years.

I spent days researching the history of the Granada Theater so was prepared to glean as much information that I could from Mr. Durow.

The Dalles was devastated when the aluminum plant closed down in the 1980s and left the town with around a 20 percent unemployment rate.

Instead of wringing their hands in despair and giving up, Durow and a broad representation of community residents got together to develop their vision of how they saw the town in the year 2000.

(By the way, elders at Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation did the same thing and their vision has been realized.)

The Granada Theater has been a thorn in the towns side for decades. The Granada in the 1990s reflects what Pendleton wants to do now. They marketed the necessity of preserving their theater and a string of entrepreneurs invested large sums of money renovating the interior and attempting to use it as a performance center. Entrepreneurs were lucky if they had one performance a month and the cost of the performances, in addition to operating expenses, resulted in financial failure.

Mr. Durow finally came to the conclusion that locals could not support the theater, so he came up with a solution. He convinced a local developer to see the potential of a major project that would truly revitalize their downtown.

To show good faith to the developer, the city bought the Granada Theater for $387,000 and put on a new roof. The developer then contacted other developers with experience in the hospitality industry.

The negotiations took two years.

The key was that the developers were able to see how The Dalles was pro-business because it had an enterprise zone. This is why Google selected the city for its server farm. Grants Pass was the other city they considered for the same reason, but The Dalles had an abundance of electricity, water and a city-wide fiber optic network in place.

On Aug. 13, the city council approved a 52-page memorandum of understanding that will result in the Granada Theater having a new life featured in a project that covers an entire block and will consist of a luxury hotel attached to it as well as two restaurants. It will also integrate the city parking lots to accommodate the guests.

The benefit of this project is that it will bring in 100 guests a night with money to spend in the community. They also constructed a dock to accommodate cruise ships to also bring in tourists who will spend money in the community.

Mr. Durow also pointed out that this project supports the other performance venues in town that have beautiful historic buildings.

The Rivoli will compete with Pendletons other performance venues and in my opinion will never be able to offer 160 events a year and not lose money.

Jerry Cronin is a Pendleton resident.