Owners of the State Theater of Havre de Grace said Thursday the venue will be permanently shut down, despite community fundraising efforts earlier this week to help the historic venue make repairs needed to regain a city occupancy permit.

Havre de Grace officials initially shut down the theater on July 1 for being out of compliance with city code.

Owner Jared Noe had raised more than $35,000 in donations since the closure to fund the necessary renovations to reopen the theater, but said Thursday that it won’t be enough to reopen.

After months of withholding rent payments, Noe said he owed his landlord about $10,000. Following the theater’s July 1 closure, Noe said his landlord gave him an invoice for $100,000 for missed rent, late fees and other charges.

With a looming $100,000 bill and more than $30,000 in needed repairs, Noe said he began moving out of the building that he spent the past eight years repairing, polishing and building for the arts community on Thursday.

“At the end of the day, the State is dead. We are out,” Noe said. “They lost the only private, inclusive venue in the North East.”

Noe’s landlord Nick Conits could not be reached for comment.

The theater’s July 1 closure stemmed from needed HVAC repairs and a missing water meter that would supply the facility’s sprinkler system with water. The State Theater was informed of the necessary repairs in 2020 following a state fire marshal inspection and had been operating under a temporary use and occupancy permit until January 31, 2025.

Since the permit expired, the theater had been operating without a permit, hosting shows, events and attracting large crowds.

City officials said they did not shut down the State Theater after the temporary permit expired because the city wanted the venue to continue to operate in Havre de Grace.

Noe said he worked with the theater’s landlord to hire a plumber to connect the meter, but ended up withholding his rent payments due to the landlord’s “inaction” and lack of interest in hiring a plumber.

“When all of this stuff started going south with the city, we told our landlord, ‘you need to get involved, I am not paying you until you get in the game,’” Noe said.

The “inaction” on the water meter installation and other repairs is what pushed city officials to issue the closure notice to Noe on June 17.

The city’s Director of Administration, Chris Ricci, said that the city’s only concern was that the building was up to code.

“If Mr. Noe completed the HVAC work and the sprinkler work, the city would have issued a final use and occupancy permit,” Ricci said.

A GoFundMe for the State Theater’s #Savethestate campaign stopped accepting donations at $28,351 of the fundraiser’s $32,000 goal. Katie Noe, Jared Noe’s wife, said all cash donations and the entire GoFundMe will be refunded to the theater’s supporters.

The owners said they are still in the live performance scene, but that they will be laying low for the next few months.

“I am going to take this time to spend with my family and take back the time I have lost over the past eight years,” Jared Noe said. “We killed ourselves to make this place a reality and to have all of these forces cheerleading against us means that at the end of the day, it’s about money. I will never come back to Havre de Grace.”

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