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The debt was just too much.

That was the consensus following an unsuccessful attempt to auction the 72-year-old Bethesda Theatre on Tuesday, which foreclosed on nearly $4 million in debt last week after failing to find investors willing to support it.

"This is common in the world today, unless there's some kind of equity involved it's hard to find a buyer; and the debt was huge here," said Jon Levinson, Vice President of Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc., the group hired to manage the foreclosure sale.

The 1938 Art Deco movie house reopened in 2007 after six years of closure thanks to a $12 million renovation by the Bozzuto Group of Greenbelt in conjunction with its construction of The Whitney — an apartment complex that sits above the theater. The theater is used as a performing arts center and rental venue.

Bozzuto donated the theater to the nonprofit Bethesda Cultural Alliance in 2006, which recently solicited bids for a management company to run the theater in hopes of unloading the debt. No viable bids were received.

"We think it's a great community asset that deserves to be maintained as it has been," said Steven A. Silverman, a board member of the alliance and director of the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development. "The challenge is to find a user that can keep it viable and that didn't seem to be realistic with the debt."

The alliance was able to cover the day-to-day costs associated with running the theater, but failed to cover the debt from the renovations and repairs undertaken over the years, Silverman said.

Despite no longer having a financial stake in the theater, the group will continue in its efforts keep the theater alive, he said.

"We have a community-based interest in seeing if there's an opportunity to have the theater survive," Silverman said.

Since no offers were made on the property beyond their $2 million opening bid, the Wisconsin Avenue theater will be owned by its principal lender — Branch Banking & Trust Co. of Timonium — following a ratification of the deed of sale by a Montgomery County District Court judge.

That process is expected to take between 45 and 60 days, Levinson said.

BB&T Vice President Thomas K. George said the bank plans to sell the property.

"After that is done, we would want to liquidate this asset," he said.

Montgomery County determined the property must remain a cinema or theater when it granted building permits for the site in 2006, Levinson said.

The lack of interest has put the future of theater into question, a plight that concerns its only full-time employee Tom Davis.

Davis, the managing director of the Bethesda Theatre, said he and the dozen or so part-timers are waiting to hear about their future.

The venue was most recently used to host Montgomery's Got Talent – a talent show for seniors.

"I know I would like to have a job here and the other staff persons would like to keep their jobs," he said. "But we don't know what will happen."