News Photo by Setve Schulwitz The former Royal Knight Theater is seen in downtown Alpena on Tuesday.

ALPENA — The Alpena Downtown Development Authority’s plan to purchase the former Royal Knight Theater and convert it into a market is dead.

The money it would have spent on the purchase, however, may be used to help downtown businesses navigate their way through the COVID-19 pandemic.

At its meeting Tuesday, the DDA board discussed investing $50,000 to help provide rent, utility and other expense relief to businesses who are closed or struggling during state-ordered shutdowns meant to prevent the spread of the virus. Portions of that money could also be used for programming, education, marketing, and promotion.

If the money is spent, it would leave DDA with about $265,000 in fund balance.

Board President Mike Mahler said the money could be distributed in several ways, including match grants businesses receive from the newly formed All in for Alpena fundraising campaign. A plan on how to distribute the funds is still being worked on, and Mahler said a special meeting would be scheduled later this month to hash out the details and process.

“That (theater) project just isn’t going to move forward,” Mahler said. “Now, we can leverage some of that money we were going to have to use and leverage it to help our businesses and downtown and still be in good shape in terms of our fund balance.”

In other business, DDA Executive Director Anne Gentry Gentry said two artists are in the running to paint a new mural downtown for the annual Fresh Waves event. She said a large-scale celebration of the new mural could take place after coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

In the meantime, “we will try to do something special so people will be able to see the process and not necessarily have to gather in person ,” she said.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.