The Main might still have a second act, a “Take 2” as the mayor put it Tuesday, if negotiations are successful and approved for properties the city is looking to buy right next to a recently stalled development on Main Street.
Theater lovers, nearby shop owners and community members have lamented the loss of The Main, as well as its neighbors, which burned down in an Aug. 24 structure fire that ravaged six local businesses.
Now, a potential tale of resurgence, with a back story fit for theater, is afoot, according to city officials, including some who could hardly contain their excitement about the plan this week.
“I am thrilled that we may be buying the old Newhall Hardware Store, and yes, I believe it would be a wonderful opportunity for this community,” Mayor Laurene Weste said Tuesday. “We lost The Main, so maybe we can have a ‘Main: Take 2.’”
The origin story starts with a stalled condo development the city had hoped would be a boon to the south side of Main Street, a complement and bookend to a revitalization effort that saw real progress with Newhall Crossings.
On the north side of Main Street, a theater, parking structure, condos and walkable retail have been a real draw to the area, according to local business owners.
Serrano Development Group and its principal Jason Tolleson were central to that effort, which was followed by a second attempt at a similar project last year.
The Hartwell project was approved in August 2025 and entitled for 98 units and 6,300 square feet of retail space on the south side. As Tolleson sought to acquire more of the land in the 24300 block, the project grew in scope.
It was expected to include the old Newhall Hardware store, which had been converted into the headquarters for radio station KHTS, but after a series of negotiations, that plan ultimately fell apart.
The radio station owners announced that they had moved, as they were counting on the sale and the pending construction. But neither happened.
The sale stalled. Tolleson has not returned a call about the project since its approval, but multiple sources familiar with such projects have indicated that financing such developments has become prohibitively expensive due to current interest rates.
And that also meant the station owners were never paid for the property they had negotiated to sell, according to their statements.
That put the longtime Newhall Hardware property back on the market.
Enter the city of Santa Clarita, stage right.
The city is expected to discuss the property’s future at Tuesday’s Santa Clarita City Council meeting, according to the agenda being released this week.
Councilwoman Marsha McLean said she could not share anything the council has discussed in closed session, but she did support the idea when asked about it this week.
“I think finding a location … in order to build a theater in Old Town Newhall to replace the one we lost as The Main, would be a really good idea,” McLean said, “and would show that the city is absolutely 100% committed to rebuilding a theater arts district in Old Town Newhall.”
Former City Councilman TimBen Boydston, who also operates the nonprofit Canyon Theatre Guild, Main Street’s surviving theater, said he was not aware of the new-theater discussion last week, but was supportive of keeping the theater district alive.
He said the realities of the situation are very difficult, without help from a government agency.
“If there was a lot of money to be made in live theater, you would see a lot more theaters,” he said, adding that when they’re built, they do make a great draw for surrounding businesses, because they act as a destination location.
“The majority of theaters in the United States that are small theaters have some sort of an arrangement with the local government, a city or a county that either creates a space or uses an old space that’s not being used, and then an organization generally then runs a separate organization,” he added.
Patti Rasmussen, who was appointed to the city’s Arts Commission by Weste, worried that as a replacement, it might be too small for the city’s burgeoning theater scene, mentioning sentiments she’s heard that the arts community could use something even bigger than what The Main was.
“Now, if ‘The Main 2,’ is going to be a place card, and we’re going to go for a bigger theater, then I am so OK with that,” she said, adding that it would be “highly disappointing,” if the city went from The Main to a smaller venue.
“It’s bigger,” Weste said, referring to the properties that KHTS is looking to sell.
The exact property records were not available for the former footprint of The Main, which had burned down as one of three addresses on its parcel, which included CareTucker and Newhall Refinery. The three combined locations had a property listing of 12,310 square feet. The former site of Newhall Hardware and KHTS, which had three smaller locations, was listed as 6,812 square feet.
