Stagnant economy in Delaware blamed for layoffs at The Grand

The Grand Theater in Wilmington has laid off a handful of employees due to continuous financial losses.

Steve Bailey, executive director of The Grand said that while ticket sales and community support has remained stable throughout the economic downturn, the organization has lost nearly a million dollars over the past six years from endowment interest or “spin-off” because of the stock market.

“What happens is these spin-offs from the endowments, they decrease so where you might get $650,000 one year from an endowment, and then you have several bad quarters in the stock market, that can drop it down to $450,000 and when your trying to support an organization at a cretin level, you cant have variables like that,” explained Bailey.

He said the plan now is to try and get the organizational size equal to the size of the support they have to work with.

“We’re doing what we need to do so there is stability in the next two to five year period which all of us hope by then, the future of the economy is a lot clearer,” he said.

The organization has eliminated four positions full-time positions and cut three full-time positions to part-time.