Martin Hash, owner of Hash Inc., a 13-year-old maker of 3-Dcharacter animation software, is paying $750,000 cash for the12,000-sf Columbia Arts Center, an early 20th-century church with40-foot ceilings that the city purchased in 1981 for $350,000. Thecity then completely renovated and upgraded the building into theColumbia Arts Center, and from 1981 to 1998 a nonprofit corporationalso called Columbia Arts Center operated the center. The city putthe building on the market last year for $895,000 after theCooperative Arts Council of Clark County, which took over operationof the facility, folded.

The arts community--particularly theater companies--hascomplained about the loss of performance space since the centerwent on the market. No more. Hash Inc. operations manager SteveSappington tells GlobeSt.com that the company will use only 2,500sf of the building's basement and balcony for its offices, and turnover management of the theatrical and arts space to the nonprofitBlue Parrot Theatre. Better yet, Sappington says Hash is giving thetheater company several months at least to get itself in a positionto be able to cover the $5,000 a month it will cost to operate thefacility. Blue Parrot plans to begin putting on shows in thecenter's approximately 400-seat auditorium sometime next summer. Aswell, Blue Parrot plans to transform its portion of the building'sdaylight basement into a rehearsal room, a dance studio, anintimate theater and a small art gallery.

The new space is good for Hash, too. "We currently own thebuilding we are in, but it's not impressive and we have outgrownit," says Sappington. "We needed some place a little more striking,a little more marketable, and we have been in love with thatbuilding for years."