The San Francisco arm of a megachurch chain announced over the weekend that it bought the long-blighted El Rey Theatre, whose tower has been a beacon in the city’s Ingleside neighborhood for nearly a century.
It’s a significant expansion for The Father’s House SF, which is part of a network of nondenominational evangelical megachurches that includes congregations in Vacaville, Santa Rosa, and Concord. But the purchase dashes hopes of some longtime residents that the landmark — with its iconic tower seen from Merced Heights to Mt. Davidson —would be restored to its art deco splendor as a community space.
Linda McGilvray, an 82-year-old artist, jazz musician, and 40-year Ingleside homeowner who lives a few blocks from the old theater, said she hoped for something more inclusive — and secular.
“The people who bought the place years ago told us it was going to be a community space with apartments that wouldn’t be that tall and that it would all fit in with the neighborhood,” McGilvray said. “And that sounded great to us."
But another church?
“You don’t want to hear my thoughts,” she said with a dry laugh. “You’d have to sanitize them. But those megachurches are phony, I’ll tell you that much.”
Therese Poletti — preservation director for the Art Deco Society of California, which advocated for the theater to become a shared community space, and author of a book about the El Rey’s architect, Timothy L. Pflueger — said anything’s better than leaving the building to decay.
“It’s great that it won’t be an eyesore anymore,” she said.
The Father’s House SF Pastor Tim Bittle revealed the acquisition during the seventh anniversary service Sunday at the Scottish Rite Center, telling congregants that the historic building at 1970 Ocean Ave. — which has sat vacant for nearly a decade — will become the church’s permanent home.
“We find ourselves at the threshold of another door,” Bittle told the packed morning service. “A door we prayed for and a door the Father is asking us to open.”
The El Rey was built as an 1,800-seat theater in 1931, according to city records. Over the years, the property managers let various business and fraternal organizations, such as the PTA club for nearby Aptos Elementary School, use it for monthly meetings. It was also occasionally shared with artists and performers for live music, galleries, and talent or fashion shows.
But with the opening of theaters in West Portal and Stonestown Mall siphoning audiences away, the El Rey’s movie attendance saw a steep decline in the 1970s.
Meanwhile, despite the addition of the original Gap Inc. store on the theater’s premises in 1967, disinvestment was taking its toll on the surrounding west Ocean Avenue corridor. Liquor stores opened where cafes and grocery stores folded. On a good night, the El Rey filled to a third of its capacity.
The theater showed its last known commercial movies in 1977, when a sex workers’ association called COYOTE hosted a film festival featuring more than 40 titles from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.S. The “hookers’ film festival,” as the San Francisco Examiner billed it, featured a keynote from sex worker-activist Margo St. James, and culminated with a Queen of Hearts Ball.
The struggling venue became a place of worship when a Pentecostal congregation called A Place to Meet Jesus snapped it up in 1977. After nearly 40 years at the theater, where it also ran a school, the church left in 2017, leaving the place abandoned ever since.
McGilvray, for her part, said she’d be less averse to the re-churching of the El Rey “as long as they’re not big on proselytizing.”
Bittle framed The Father’s House acquisition as a continuation his church’s mission to serve. “May we never be content to sit in a sanctuary on a Sunday morning, securing our salvation among familiar faces when we know there are millions of people outside these doors that do not yet know Jesus,” he said.
The announcement came as the centerpiece of what church leaders called the “worst-kept secret ever,” with a video presentation revealing the property purchase. The church plans to host a special service next weekend to share more details about the acquisition timeline, renovation plans, and the building’s history.
The Father’s House has established itself as a presence in San Francisco’s religious landscape over the past seven years, with the church reporting it has carried out 1,217 conversions and 592 baptisms, established 4,758 connections through church visitors and raised $1.94 million for charities, missions and local and global charitable causes during that period.
The Bittles, who declined to share a purchase price for the El Rey, said the church has secured funding for the property but will need to conduct a fundraising campaign for renovations, which they plan to launch in January.
Construction is expected to begin within the next few months, pending city permits, with the church aiming for an Easter 2027 opening if city approval proceeds smoothly.
“A lot of that is going to be contingent upon city permitting timelines,” Tim Bittle said, noting the city has expressed enthusiasm about reactivating the corridor with a church that could bring 1,500 to 2,000 people to the area each weekend.
The renovation plans include converting the building’s west wing — currently an abandoned warehouse space — into a community center featuring a half-court basketball facility and after-school tutoring programs.
The church also plans to restore retail spaces that previous owners intended for commercial lease, repurposing them instead for a children’s ministry and community outreach.
Robyn Bittle said the church hopes to expand its existing community services, which currently include a senior center operating Thursday evenings and a food pantry at their ministry center at 2550 Ocean Ave. The new facility would allow the church to expand food distribution and offer the theater for community events such as classic film showings.
The Bittles acknowledged the building’s history, referencing media coverage that blamed its emptiness for creating “a blight on the community.” Tim Bittle said they hope to “restore not just a building, but restore the reputation of the church in a community that might have not looked at it so positively.”
The historic El Rey building, designated as a historic landmark, will require the church to comply with preservation requirements as they develop final renovation plans. The Bittles said preliminary renderings are in development but not yet ready for public release.
At an after-party on Sunday not far from the church’s ministry center in Lakeside Village, congregants Rachel and Tim Marasigan processed the news over chicken tacos and quesadillas.
For Rachel, who joined the church in January after marrying her husband, the announcement marked a personal milestone. She recalled her first conversation with Pastor Tim Bittle, when she tearfully told him she loved her previous church.
“He said to me, ‘We’ll be your step-home until you feel like you’re in a real home.’ I feel like today was the culmination of that. I feel like this is my real home now,” she said.
Gabe Ramos, who helps his sister Kim Ramos operate Charm Coffee just steps from the El Rey building, expressed cautious optimism about the church’s arrival in the neighborhood. After parking across from the building Sunday afternoon, Ramos said the development could help revitalize a corridor that has remained “mundane” and “quiet” for years.
“I think a whole section of Ocean Avenue is starting to pick up and get a little bit more lively,” Ramos said. “I think it could have a huge impact, especially to help build the community.”
He welcomed plans to screen classic films at the renovated theater, calling it a way to preserve the El Rey’s nostalgic significance, and the intention to use retail spaces for community programs, including food distribution services.
Ramos’ only worry was street parking, noting that while the building has a rear parking lot, it may not accommodate the influx of churchgoers: “Some people might get upset there, but you know, growing pains … anything that can help build the community a little bit better will serve everyone.”
The former movie theater also includes two empty retail spaces, one on either side of the main entrance.
The previous owners pitched the city on housing plans there in 2021, but they never got further than an initial proposal with crude renderings. Ricci Ventures sold the theater to the current owner, Bella Roses Ventures LLC, in 2023.
The church’s mid-year financial report mentions that it raised just under $3.3 million for a “permanent home” as of July 2024.
Miles Escobedo, 37, who chairs the Ingleside Merchants Association and owns Ocean Ale House about a half-mile down the avenue, said he just wants the incoming occupants to do more with the place than the last owners.
“Hopefully the new buyers will actually do something, including restoring the theater and actually utilizing it as a place for artists and the community,” he said.
Whether The Father’s House welcomes other community uses — let alone anything like a “hookers’ festival” — remains to be seen.
“I probably won’t be going there,” Escobedo added, “but I’m glad people who practice that religion will have a place to worship.”