We wanted to wish you a happy holiday and provide an update on the Kickstarter project you generously supported this fall. In case you don’t recall, you helped Killing My Lobster reach our goal of securing a permanent home and theater at a commercial space formerly known as Darlene’s Fabric Store at Mission and 24th in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, after nearly six months of discussions and two months of actual negotiations – and shortly after our Kickstarter campaign had closed – we received an email from the real estate agency representing the owners of the building saying, without explanation, that the landlord had declined our offer to lease the space. So we are sorry to report that, despite our best efforts, we are at an impasse with the landlord and do not expect to come to an agreement with them in the coming months, if at all.

Having received your support in our efforts to secure this space, we fully appreciate any further questions this may raise. If you are curious as to exactly how the negotiations transpired, let us know and we can provide greater detail.

So what’s next? Simple: we stay committed to securing a space.

We’re still looking for ways to continue the discussion with the landlord in Mission Street. Until someone else signs a lease on the space, we’ll continue to pursue it. We’ve reached out to Supervisor David Campos, who represents the neighborhood in question, and we’re hoping that he might contact the landlords on our behalf. And we’re acting on other ideas of how to proactively and productively reengage the owners. Along these lines, we have discussed the situation with our friends in the Bay Area theatrical and nonprofit communities in hope of strengthening our position in future real estate negotiations, whether with this landlord or another one.

What if that space doesn’t work out? We have some other ideas.

There are more than a few “For Rent” signs in windows around the Mission (and the rest of the City). After our fundraising success and all of the planning we’ve done in 2011, we’re in a stronger position than ever before to secure a permanent home. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our fans this year, it’s that you are just as ready for us to have a place to call home as we are. Whether that home is at Mission and 24th or elsewhere in the City, we are committed to keeping the search going.

What happens to the money we raised? We intend to use it as planned, just not right away and not at the space we’d hoped for. This is not an unprecedented situation; a similar thing happened with our friends at the Parkway Theater in Oakland.

So, back to Darlene’s.

We wish we had better news as we wrap up 2011 and enter our fifteenth year – that we’re ready to sign that damned lease. But regardless of what happens with Darlene’s, we are moving toward finding a real home for Killing My Lobster. We’re ready for it and we can do it. All of our hard work the past few months has shown us that.

We should still celebrate, because even if we don’t know exactly where we’ll land, we know we’re pointed in the right direction. We know how to get there. And we couldn’t have gotten as far as we have without you. We can never thank you enough for confirming our belief that a home for KML is more than possible, it’s inevitable.

Thank you, and we’ll continue to provide you updates as we begin 2012.

Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year,

Shane O’Connor
President, Board of Directors
The Lobster Theater Project