When the Off Broadway Second Stage Theater announced in 2008 that it would buy and renovate a Broadway house, the total cost was $35 million. Now, after multiple delays, the sale is finally on a fast track to close in mid-February, but Second Stage executives are rushing to raise money for a much higher goal: $58 million.  Why the big jump? It isn’t because of any appreciable change in price for the Helen Hayes Theater, for which Second Stage is paying about $25 million. Rather, the cost reflects Second Stage’s ambitions for the Hayes, both artistically and architecturally, that could make it one of the most notable real estate moves in New York theater in recent years once the company begins producing there, as soon as the 2017-18 season.  At a time when most Broadway shows are written by white men, Second Stage’s record of producing new plays by women and minorities — among them the Pulitzer-Prize winners Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lynn Nottage, as well as Laura Eason, Rajiv Joseph and Kristoffer Diaz — could lead to more of these works on Broadway, the most lucrative platform in American theater, where they would be eligible for Tony Awards. Second Stage’s artistic director, Carole Rothman, said she wanted to use the Hayes, Broadway’s smallest theater with just under 600 seats, to produce works by these artists and other living American writers who might appeal to nontraditional theatergoers. (Broadway audiences are dominated by well-off white women and wealthy tourists.)  “I think Broadway needs as many new American plays as possible, and the kinds of writers we do are slightly different than you see at Broadway theaters now,” Ms. Rothman said in a telephone interview during a recent trip to Los Angeles, where she was meeting with potential and current donors.  To help finance that mission, especially since many Broadway plays never recoup their costs, Second Stage will create a reserve budget “to make sure we have the money to operate the Hayes and produce the sort of work we want, rather than build something that isn’t sustainable,” said Casey Reitz, Second Stage’s executive director. He declined to disclose the reserve amount but said it was one reason the project cost more now. (Second Stage’s annual operating budget is $8 million; Mr. Reitz expects it to double once Second Stage is running the Hayes.)  Second Stage also expects construction costs to be much higher than they would have been in 2008. The theater is working with the architect David Rockwell on “fresh and contemporary” ideas for the marquee, lobby and auditorium, dressing rooms, and office space at the Helen Hayes, Mr. Reitz said. The Hayes is a 1912 jewel box with city landmark protections; Mr. Rockwell said he would leave the brick facade and elegant ornamental ceiling untouched.  “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to think through what a Broadway theater should be today,” Mr. Rockwell said.  About 70 percent of the $58 million is in place, Mr. Reitz said, and Second Stage hopes to land a big donation in return for the right to rename the theater. He declined to estimate the target amount but said that the Hayes was almost certain to be renamed.  “I’m extremely confident we’ll get the money we need and the deal will go through,” he added. (The city is contributing $6 million from its capital budget for renovations.)  Second Stage is the latest nonprofit theater company to set sights on one of Broadway’s 40 houses, which rarely come on the market. In the last 15 years, the Roundabout Theater Company has taken over the American Airlines and Stephen Sondheim Theaters and Studio 54, and Manhattan Theater Club acquired the Biltmore (now the Friedman). Producing at Broadway theaters can generate critical revenue for nonprofit theaters, many of which struggle with budget deficits.  “You can make real money as a producer or landlord at your theater,” said Paul Libin, who owns Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theater and is executive vice president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns five other Broadway houses. Still, he expressed surprise that Second Stage was paying so much.  “That is a lot of money to pay for a theater,” he said, “though having a Tony-eligible Broadway house is a strong motivating factor.”  The 35-year-old Second Stage has had several productions transfer to Broadway, but, lacking its own theater, the company was a junior partner receiving only small cuts of profits compared with the revenue that the producers and theater owners got. Second Stage mounts shows at its Off Broadway home on West 43rd Street and also during the summer at an Upper West Side theater. Second Stage plans to continue running those two spaces as well as the Hayes, with Ms. Rothman saying that its musical productions would probably remain at the main Off Broadway site.  “Musicals are expensive and risky, and we like to do offbeat musicals that can develop better in an Off Broadway home,” she said. The musicals “Next to Normal” and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” had important early productions at Second Stage before their commercial producers moved them to Broadway.  The purchase was postponed in 2010 because the recession limited the ability of nonprofits like Second Stage to raise money, and again while the Hayes’s current tenant, “Rock of Ages,” became a long-running hit. The sale was back on when the “Rock of Ages” producers announced last month that they would close the show in January. If the sale is completed as expected in mid-February, Mr. Reitz said, Second Stage might rent the Hayes to commercial producers for a limited-run show, perhaps as soon as this spring.  Jeffrey Tick, whose family has owned the Hayes with Martin Markinson since 1979, said the owners had not been looking to sell when Second Stage approached them in 2008, but the offer was too rich to pass up. (The air rights to the Hayes have already been sold to a developer.) He said he had been fielding calls from other potential buyers recently, but Second Stage had first dibs.  “We’ve had people say, ‘I’m interested’ or ‘Second Stage is overpaying and won’t raise the money,’ ” Mr. Tick said. “But I think they will, and it’s a deal that’s good one for both sides.”  A version of this article appears in print on December 18, 2014, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: $58 Million Is Sought for Theater. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
The Second Stage Theater company is moving ahead on buying the Helen Hayes Theater and hopes to set aside a reserve fund to cover production costs.