Is it last call for Ella’s?

Saturday night was the kind of night that should be the norm at CenterStage.

There was a loud birthday bash on the first floor; an even louder 20th high school reunion in the main ballroom on the second floor; Ella’s Supper Club was packed on the third floor; and “Reefer Madness” was being projected on the back wall of the Fox from CenterStage’s billiards-room window.

But there was a melancholy mood looming on the third floor, as the word was spreading of Ella’s demise.

At about 11 p.m., artistic director Tim Behrens made the announcement to the audience that without some serious miracle work, this was likely going to be the final night for Ella’s Supper Club, located on the third floor of CenterStage, 1017 W. First Ave.

The club has been closed since then and will likely stay that way.

Even if the bare-boned CenterStage can somehow quickly come up with the $40,000 needed to get through the month, it will need an additional $125,000 by the end of August in order to stay in operation until January.

As Spokane’s only dedicated club for live jazz, local and touring musicians have been able to share their craft and build their chops on Ella’s for five years.

And Ella’s is just one third of what the old Odd Fellows building, which CenterStage leases from Spokane Partners LLC, has to offer.

Between the fairytale-like grand ballroom, the mobster feel of the billiards room and turn-of-the-Century grace of the Library Lounge, the second floor is suitable for weddings, re-unions and bat mitzvahs. The third floor could be rented out as rehearsal and performance space for dance, comedy and theatre groups.

Regardless of the overflow of potential – and even despite its 501(c)3 status – CenterStage has historically struggled to make enough money to keep its doors open.

It has operated as a non-profit entity in every sense of the word.

“It always takes some really weird emergency for people to take our plight seriously,” said Behrens. “I do know that we can’t do what we did before – raise $30,000 and say, ‘OK, that’s enough to stay open for another month.’ ”

The financial hemorrhaging has worsened seemingly beyond repair in recent months, due to a poor economy and a drop in donations and retail revenues, according to the new executive director, Don Swanson.

CenterStage launched a capital campaign in May but has fallen short of its goal to raise $225,000. A plan was also announced to focus on the success of Ella’s and the catering business.

But the biggest blow to CenterStage’s survival was the impact of having no events scheduled in the grand ballroom during the entire month of July.

“We had initially planned back when we did our season schedule in September to have a run of summer theater in July. When I came into this position as executive director, myself and the board evaluated the cost effectiveness of that and determined that we simply could not bring this play to the stage,” Swanson said. “All of a sudden, the revenues on paper that was projected to bring in were of course not coming in. And while July is a popular time for weddings and reunions, since we didn’t cancel the play until mid-May – who schedules their reunions or weddings two months in advance? – so we weren’t able to fill those available dates. That was really the last item that has kind of tipped us over – that lack of events in the building during the month of July.”

While chances are slim enough money can be obtained in time to re-open Ella’s, even on a part-time basis, CenterStage will continue to host events already scheduled in August.

Beyond that, there is dimming hope that CenterStage can honor events scheduled in the fall and the winter.

“Where we are right now is looking for strategies for how to do that; will we be able to do that or will we have to make other arrangements,” Swanson said.