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It's quiet and a little on the chilly side in the lobby of the old Hiland Theater at 4804 Central Ave. S.E.

The lights down in the theater section are not working, so several county officials - Commissioner Deanna Archuleta; Julie Baca, deputy county manager for community services; and county spokeswoman Liz Hamm - sit on the carpeted stairs curving up from the lobby to the old movie house's balcony.

They're here to talk about county Bond Question No. 4 in the Nov. 7 election. It seeks $1.1 million for construction and renovations at the county-owned Hiland.

Archuleta said there is a lot of interest in preserving the Hiland, a fixture on Route 66 since it opened as an 875-seat movie theater in 1951.

"This theater is Route 66," Archuleta said. "There is so much rich history here. Losing the Hiland would be like losing the Alvarado all over again."

The Alvarado, a stylish Fred Harvey hotel Downtown, was demolished in 1970 for a parking lot.

Archuleta said plenty of developers would be happy to bulldoze the Hiland and adjacent buildings and replace them with loft apartments. And she concedes that might be a more profitable way for the county to go.

"We could make money selling to developers," she said. "But is that what our job as a government is - to make money? Or is it to serve the community?"

Archuleta's hope is to turn the Hiland and two adjoining buildings, which the county also owns, into a performing arts space and a center for neighborhood functions.

She envisions it as a cultural and economic anchor that could spur the kind of positive development on East Central that the Nob Hill area has experienced in past years.

"My dream is that it would never go dark, that there would be something going on here every night," Archuleta said.

But that dream is millions of dollars and at least a couple of years away.

The $1.1 million the county wants voters to approve in the bond issue - which never specifically mentions the Hiland - simply continues renovations already started.

Archuleta said the bond would bring the building up to electrical code and pay for other improvements such as repairing holes in the theater's fire walls. Those projects need doing, regardless of what use the county makes of the Hiland.

The county bought the theater and adjacent buildings in early 2005, several months before Musical Theater Southwest had to vacate the facility because of financial problems. MTS had purchased the Hiland complex in 1996.

Julie Baca said converting the property into a multiuse performance space could cost $10 million.

"The bond issue money is just a kick-start," she said. "Realistically, we will have to go to the Legislature a few times to get the money we need."

Baca said the earliest the county could expect additional funds would be following the 2007 legislative session. Even if a performance space project is developed in stages, she said, it could be 2008 before any of it is ready for use.

In the meantime, the county has been meeting with performance groups and Hiland neighborhood residents to determine if a new performance space is needed and whether that's the best use for the old theater.

The county also signed a consulting contract with Bob Martin, general manager of Santa Fe's Lensic Theater, an old movie house converted into a multipurpose performance space more than five years ago.

"They are doing it smart," Martin said of the county, "taking their time, doing their research."

Martin said diversity is the key to the Lensic's success and could also be the model for the Hiland's future.

"We do any kind of dance, all sorts of music from world music to rock to classical to jazz," Martin said. "We do theater works in progress. We actually show films. We have a lot of community events."

Bernalillo County says initial reaction from the performing community regarding a new arts venue has been positive.

David Nava, founder and artistic director of Albuquerque's American Shakespeare Project, said a number of homeless performing companies, including his, would be interested in another venue - not only for performances, but for rehearsals.

"If there was a mechanism for incorporating rehearsal space into it, that would be an enormous boost for companies producing theater on a shoestring," Nava said. "Now, we are renting rehearsal space in places we can't even keep our stuff (costumes, props, sets) in."

Michael Blum, co-artistic director of Teatro Nuevo Mexico, Albuquerque's Hispanic theater company, said the performance community can always use another affordable venue.

"It's the price of the use that makes things difficult," he said. "It would cost some performance companies a whole year's budget just to set foot in (the University of New Mexico's) Popejoy Hall."

But he wonders how long a government-owned venue would last if the community didn't support it.

"Eventually some bean counter would look at it and decide it doesn't make good economic sense," he said.

Terri Cole, president of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, said she thinks the goal of renovating the Hiland and improving it as an arts venue makes a great deal of sense.

What doesn't make sense to Cole is that the bond issue doesn't mention the Hiland. It just says "county buildings."

Baca said that gives the county the flexibility to use the money for other buildings if something - such as fire - happens to the Hiland. Cole shrugs off that explanation.

"Not being specific about what you are asking people to vote on doesn't seem like a good idea," Cole said. "Especially when it's for a good idea like renovating the Hiland."