More information on the status of the Roanoke Rapids Theatre loan agreement is expected to be forthcoming by the council’s next meeting, the panel was told Tuesday night.

City Attorney Geoffrey Davis said within the past two weeks he has spoken with Tom McLean, who is the president of G&T Holdings, which owns the theater, as well as their attorney.

“I indicated to them what we had discussed at the last council meeting that more than likely the council would not be interested in extending the loan agreement again, especially for the term that had been extended previously,” Davis said.

In those talks Davis said, “We made it clear to them that an extension is unlikely at this point.” The attorney said, however, “That they’re paying the taxes says to me as an attorney that they are committed to this property, that they wouldn’t sign away essentially a hundred-thousand more money behind it if they were resigned to the fact that the city was going to foreclose on them. 

“That says to me they are in the process of trying to live up to some of their obligations under the agreement and I’m optimistic that by the next regular meeting I will have some more information on it.”

Davis said some of the financial decisions “that I think are being contemplated require a little bit more time and have some third parties involved that have some harder timelines.”

The discussions between Davis and McLean were based on a meeting last month called to specifically discuss the theater issue.

During that discussion the city received word that taxes on the venue were paid earlier in the day.

The payment of the late city and county taxes, however, did not mean a change in the loan maturity date.

Halifax County Tax Office records show that on the day the meeting was scheduled — January 25 — McLean paid the original taxes due in the amount of $97,062.79.

The building, which sits on 8.82 acres of land, currently has a value of $4,918,500 with a land value of $885,800. It has a personal value of $60,115 for a total taxable value of $5,864,415.

Before information on the payment was disclosed, Davis said the original promissory note with G&T Holdings was entered into in July of 2018. There have been four modifications since that time, with the last approved in January of 2021.

As of the last modification the maturity date of the note changed from January 15 of last year to this January 15. 

If G&T Holdings had paid the city and county in full by January 15 the maturity date would have automatically been extended to May of this year.