Detroit Opera House needs $11 million to avoid closure

Mortgage payments for organization due by May 31

DETROIT – The Michigan Opera Theatre has 46 days to raise $6 million or it faces shuttering. 

For anyone counting, that's $130,435 a day.  

Like so many in the metro Detroit area, mortgages are tough to meet. 

The Opera House is no different.

Its original mortgage was with local banks, but those mortgages have been moved to big corporations and lenders who can't look out of their window to see the contribution the facility makes to the area. 

A responsible borrower, The Opera House has been meeting its notes, not robbing Peter to pay Paul, but making its regular payments. And while the banks have been working with the opera house and its captains, the bottom line is that a ‘balloon' payment comes due May 31 for $11 million.  Five million has already been raised, but it needs $6 million more to meet the note.

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About the Author:

Paula Tutman is an Emmy award-winning journalist who came to Local 4 in 1992. She's married and the stepmother of three beautiful and brilliant daughters. Her personal philosophy in life, love and community is, "Do as much as you can possibly do, not as little as you can possibly get away with".