DEFAULT IS NOT IN OUR STARS, BUT IN OURSELVES: Covering The Cover-Up At Bay City’s State Theatre
“TBH I spoke out of turn when Cole called me about the note as I’m not the current board chair.” (Chris Girard, December 14, 2023 email excerpt)
Santa Claus came early this year: the gift of a small-town financial scandal in my birthplace — Bay City, Michigan.
The small town big shot at the white-hot center of this scandal is Michael Bacigalupo, the former chief operating officer of Bay City’s State Theatre.
Bacigalupo, a multi-hyphenate who also served as the director of Bay City’s Downtown Development Authority and Special Events Coordinator for the City of Bay City, was ousted in late October from all three paying gigs after it was reported that talent agencies representing musicians Rick Springfield and Joan Jett (who recently performed in Bay City’s Wenonah Park) claimed that the checks written for their performances bounced.
Bacigalupo remains the director of the Bay County Historical Museum.
However, with the exception of a story published November 24, 2023 on MLive.com by the Bay City Times, there’s been little substantive coverage.
Until now.
I’ve spent time investigating the recent financial activity of the State Theatre, including an $800,000 commercial mortgage provided to the nonprofit Theatre by Bay County Growth Alliance (also a nonprofit).
I reviewed the State Theatre’s available financial disclosures, and contacted Growth Alliance and Theatre officials on December 13, 2023 for answers to three questions.
Here’s an excerpt from my email:
Only one person, Chris Girard, responded — and he passed the buck (or bucks).
(Note: the requests for information emails were copied to Tracy Teich, who’s warming a chair as the State Theatre’s “Interim Chief Operating Officer” and forwarded to Andrea Hales. Hales is the current President of the Bay County Growth Alliance, Inc., the entity behind the State Theatre’s mortgage. Neither responded, even after I extended my deadline.)
DEFAULT! THE BAY CITY STATE THEATRE’S $800,000 COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE
Girard, a Commissioner representing the citizens of Bay City’s 6th Ward since November 2019, formerly served as President of Bay City Commission.
On June 26, 2020, as President of Bay County Growth Alliance President Christopher Girard signed the $800,000 commercial mortgage, naming the State Theatre, 913 Washington Avenue, as the borrower.
As shown below, the “future advance mortgage” was recorded on July 15, 2020. The agreement was described as “a promissory note for multiple advances from Borrower to Lender, with a maximum principal amount of $800,000”.
However, the November 24, 2023 MLive article directly quoted Chris Girard:
“Growth Alliance has the note for the State Theatre,” Girard said. “Technically, if they defaulted on the payments, the Growth Alliance could foreclose on the State Theatre.”
The State Theatre has repaid some of the principal, but a balance is still outstanding, Girard said in the MLive report. He could not provide the still-owed amount, nor confirm the State is behind on payments.
It appears the Growth Alliance may be holding an empty bag: in the excerpt shown below from the State Theatre’s restated IRS Form 990 for the calendar year ending December 30, 2020 (filed on November 2, 2022), the “Unsecured notes and loans payable to unrelated third parties” shows an outstanding obligation of $975,506, with total liabilities pegged at $1,013,940 — way more than the $188,434 in liabilities cited in the November 24, 2023 MLive story,
(It appears MLive relied on the State Theatre’s earlier 2020 IRS Form 990 filed on November 12, 2021.)
Underline that word “unsecured” — it appears there could be no actual “collateral” backing the Growth Alliance’s gut-busting loan to the State Theatre.
But we don’t know what we don’t know.
As of today, the State Theatre has not made its two most recent IRS Form 990 filings public (for the fiscal years ending December 31, 2021 and 2022) — or may not have filed them.
And nobody on the inside is talking.
Part 2 coming tomorrow, December 20.
