In 1981 the building was purchased for $580,000 by a limited partnership formed by three prominent members of the community, Joseph Shafran, Robert Soltz, and William Risman. These three general partners called the partnership Temple Associates. In addition there were 22 limited partners, later increased to 46. Temple Associates raised a total of $340,000 from the original limited partners; the three general partners loaned Temple Associates $250,000. In addition the partnership took out an $180,000, 10-year mortgage.

In the first year of operation, the building produced $70,000 in annual rents. By 1990, the annual rental income had risen to $330,000. However, the expenses of maintaining a building of this size and age plus mortgage payments and capital repairs never permitted the building to even approach a break-even point. In its first year of operation (1981), the partnership lost $208,000 and by 1993 the total accumulated debt to the partners was almost $1,715,000 plus a $597,000 balance on a bank loan with National City Bank, which was secured by the personal guarantees of the three general partners.

During the 13 years that the partnership owned the building, they kept the building afloat as best they could at enormous personal sacrifice to themselves and the limited partners. The vision that they had for the Civic formed the basis for the current uses of the building. In 1984 they applied for and received a listing on the National Register of Historical Places. They also began looking for tenants who would fulfill the goal of turning the building into a local home for arts and civic organizations and civic events. Renting out 110,000 square feet was not easy and Temple Associates tried a variety of approaches. Because of the inexpensive rents, several local nonprofit corporations took up residence at The Civic. The two kosher kitchens were rented to kosher caterers. The Assembly was used for weddings, meetings, and even bingo. The Gottfried Chapel became the home of the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble and later Ensemble Theatre. The largest space, the Great Hall, was almost never used, partly because of its size and partly because of its rather shabby condition. In addition, it was extremely expensive to heat this space, as well as the rest of the building.

As early as 1983, it was beginning to become clear to the owners that the for-profit structure of the partnership was preventing the building from tapping into government and foundation funds that, for most enterprises like the Civic, formed the backbone of their financial support. In 1983 the partners formed the Kaleidoscope, a 509(a)(2) foundation. The original idea was for the foundation to lease the large spaces from the partnership and then re-lease these spaces to nonprofit performance organizations, thus making the area eligible for tax-exempt grants and donations. While the general idea had merit, the legal complexities of the structure proved to be unworkable and the idea was dropped in 1985.

The next idea pursued was to create a business incubator in the building. These were popular at the time and the State of Ohio was funding several others in the area. The City of Cleveland Heights assisted the Civic in pursuing this idea, but the layout of the Civic proved to be unworkable to accommodate the needs of an incubator, so that idea was also abandoned.