Manitou Fund announces plans to purchase Stillwater’s troubled Zephyr Theatre

Calling the Zephyr Theatre an “essential and impactful community-driven arts collaborative,” officials from a foundation based in White Bear Lake announced Wednesday that they plan to purchase the theater property in downtown Stillwater.

Manitou Fund officials have entered into a purchase agreement to purchase the theater property, located at 601 N. Main St., and plan to enter into a lease agreement with theater officials. A May closing is planned; a sale price was not disclosed.

Theater officials will have the option to repurchase the theater property in the future, officials said in a statement released Wednesday. The move gives theater officials “time to reorganize educational and performance programming and plan for the future,” according to the statement.

Things looked bleak for the Zephyr six months ago. The theater’s executive director, Calyssa Hall, resigned; most of the staff were furloughed; productions were canceled, and the popular Ice Maze had to find a new home.

The news about the Manitou Fund’s purchase was “beyond thrilling,” said Nicole Bartelt, the theater’s board chairwoman.

“This gives us a way forward,” Bartelt said. “We will sharpen our focus on long-term goals, and we look forward to sharing more good news as this relationship develops and grows.”

Oliver Din, the Manitou Fund’s president and chief executive officer, said the foundation was pleased to support the theater, which will enable “the arts organization to envision and engineer a future for community-based arts education and programs.”

The Manitou Fund was created by Minnesota business magnate Donald McNeely, who died in 2009 at age 94. McNeely, a Minnesota Vikings co-owner who was instrumental in bringing the Washington Senators to Minnesota as the Minnesota Twins, also created the Lee and Rose Warner Nature Center in 1964 to honor his aunt and uncle and promote environmental education.

McNeely, who lived on Manitou Island in White Bear Lake, created the Manitou Fund to finance many of his family’s charitable interests. In 2009, the Lee and Rose Warner Foundation, another foundation started by McNeely, was merged into the Manitou Fund.

The fund’s board of trustees includes Din and McNeely’s children, Nora McNeely Hurley, Greg McNeely and Kevin McNeely.

Theater officials have been working to save the facility since last fall.

“While there was no indication of intentional financial mismanagement, it was clear there are organizational and financial challenges that must be addressed immediately,” Zephyr trustees wrote in a statement at the time. “We as an organization are currently finalizing a plan to return the Zephyr theater to financial health and stability.”

The theater is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit organization whose “charitable purpose is to further the arts and provide arts education,” according to documents filed with the state attorney general’s office.

During the pandemic, theater officials failed to file annual reports and supporting documents for 2019 and 2020 in a timely manner, and the attorney general’s office withdrew the Zephyr’s registration. State officials warned that “it is a violation of Minnesota law to solicit in Minnesota without being registered,” according to a Oct. 25, 2021, letter written by Charities Registrar Julie Brengman.

Officials from the Zephyr filed the missing annual reports and paid the $150 late fee, according to a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.

Hall, the founder and former executive director, moved to Marine on St. Croix and started Frosted Glass Creative, a community theater company.