A large evangelical church announced over the weekend that it bought the long-blighted El Rey Theatre, whose tower has been a beacon in the Ingleside neighborhood for nearly a century.
It’s a significant expansion for The Father’s House SF, an independent congregation born out of a network of similarly named megachurches in Vacaville, Napa, and Concord. But the purchase dashes hopes (opens in new tab) of some residents that the landmark would be restored to its art deco splendor as a community space.
Linda McGilvray, 82, an artist, publicist for jazz musicians, and 40-year Ingleside homeowner who lives a few blocks from the theater, said she hoped for something more inclusive, and secular.
“The people who bought the place years ago told us (opens in new tab) 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,” said McGilvray, a board member of the Ingleside Terraces Homes Association. “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.”
Therese Poletti — preservation director for the Art Deco Society of California (opens in new tab), which advocated for the theater to become a shared community space, and author of a book about the El Rey’s architect, (opens in new tab)Timothy L. Pflueger (opens in new tab) — said anything’s better than leaving the building to decay.
“It’s great that it won’t be an eyesore anymore,” she said.
Pastor Tim Bittle of The Father’s House revealed the acquisition Sunday morning at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, telling congregants that the 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 crowd, who had come to celebrate the church’s seventh anniversary. “A door we prayed for and a door the Father is asking us to open.”
The 1,800-seat El Rey opened in 1931, according to a city document penned (opens in new tab) in 2017 as part of an effort to designate the building as a historic landmark. Over the years, 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, 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, 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 festival (opens in new tab) featuring more than 40 films 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 and activist Margo St. James (opens in new tab) and culminated with the Queen of Hearts Ball.
The struggling venue became a place of worship when a Pentecostal group 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 congregation left in 2016 after the pastor bankrupted the church to finance a sci-fi film he reportedly described (opens in new tab) as “The 10 Commandments meets Star Wars.” The place has been abandoned ever since.
Bittle framed The Father’s House acquisition as a continuation of 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 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 over the past seven years. It reports that 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.
Bittle, 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, planned to launch in January.
Construction is expected to begin within a few months, pending city permits. The church is aiming for an Easter 2027 opening.
“A lot of that is going to be contingent upon city permitting timelines,” Bittle said, noting that the city has expressed enthusiasm about reactivating the corridor with a church that could bring 1,500 to 2,000 people each weekend.
The renovation plans include converting the 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.
The church will have to comply with preservation requirements as it renovates the El Rey, which is designated as a historic landmark. Preliminary renderings are in development, Bittle said.
The church hopes to expand its community services, which include a senior center that operates Thursday evenings and a food pantry at the 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.
Bittle acknowledged the building’s history, referencing media coverage that blamed its emptiness for creating “a blight on the community.” He said the church aims 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.”
At an after-party 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 in January after marrying Tim, the announcement marked a personal milestone. She recalled her first conversation with 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, expressed cautious optimism about the church’s arrival. 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 is street parking. He noted 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 has two empty retail spaces, one on either side of the main entrance.
The previous owners pitched the city (opens in new tab) on housing plans there in 2021 but never got beyond an initial proposal with crude renderings. Ricci Ventures sold the theater to the current owner, Bella Roses Ventures LLC, in 2023.
The church’s midyear financial report (opens in new tab) mentions that it had raised nearly $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 half a mile away, said he wants the new occupants to do more with the place than the last owners did.
“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.”
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that Father’s House SF is not a direct affiliate of the Father’s House chain of megachurches, but an independent church that shares the same “name, values, and DNA.”