Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | June 10, 2024 | wbjournal.com BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Staff Writer N early a quarter century ago, Edward Madaus and Paul Demoga, two businessmen, bought the dilapidated former site of the Showcase Cinemas Complex in downtown Worcester. Originally built in 1904 as the Frank- lin Square eatre, the space needed millions of dollars and years of work to be revitalized. But once completed, the space has an undeniable impact on the region's cultural landscape. Since its 2008 reopening, e Hanover eatre & Conservatory for the Per- forming Arts has racked up accolades, including a National Trust for Historic Preservation Award and a number of listings on the annual Top eatres in the World list produced by Pollstar, a Los Angeles-based concert venue trade publication. e renovation even inspired a 2023 documentary entitled "On a Wing and a Prayer: Achieving the Impossible Dream." Despite the success of the Hanover, at- tempts to reopen other dormant theater spaces since 2008 in Central Massachu- setts have shown how difficult it is to turn these types of dreams into reality. Some of these venues, like the Olym- pia eatre in Worcester, date back to the late 19th century, offering a chance to bring unique architectural marvels back to life. Others, like the former Foothills eatre a few blocks away, could provide the last piece of the puzzle in creating a modern dining and enter- tainment center. Bringing older live performance spac- es back to life could bolster the Central Massachusetts entertainment scene. For other venues to follow the Hanover eatre's path, serious commitment will be needed, both financial and otherwise. Waiting on a friend Perhaps the most prominent example of a derelict live entertainment space in Central Massachusetts is the 3,500- seat Worcester Memorial Auditorium. Looming over Lincoln Square, the auditorium was constructed in 1933 and hosted a wide variety of sports, music, and theater events, including basketball games and performances by artists like Bob Dylan and e Rolling Stones. Long past its heyday, the space has been mostly vacant since the early 2000s. e Boston-based Architectural Heritage Foundation has reached a land disposition agreement with the City of Worcester involving the site, with the ultimate goal of bringing it back to life Underutilized theater spaces offer unique architec- tural and cultural potential, but reopening these spaces is an expensive and time-consuming feat Final act? as a venue focused on emerging events such as e-sports, robotics competitions, and immersive exhibits. "It's a really good partnership, be- cause we don't have to take ownership at this point, until we can find a viable reuse and financial plan," said Jake Sanders, project executive at AHM. e cost of renovations would be substantial, requiring significant con- tributions from public subsidies and/ or private donations, Sanders said. AHF reopening the unique structure would likely surpass the renovation of the Ha- nover eatre in both cost and scale. Changing entertainment landscape Live performance theater projects that are significantly less ambitious than the attempt to revitalize WMA still face a number of challenges, including diffi- culties in raising financing for construc- tion projects and the uncertain state of the theater industry. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shuttering of theater produc- tions across the country, the sector was struggling with a number of challenges, according to a February report from Barbara Fuchs and Rhonda Sharrah, two professors at UCLA. eir report found theater subscrip- tions, a business model allowing venues to bank box office proceeds and be less reliant on individual ticket sales, were in decline before the pandemic, as non- profit theaters only covered 50% of costs with ticket sales, the rest being made up with public funds or philanthropy. Since the pandemic, live entertain- ment's recovery has been a bit of a mixed bag. Attendance to Broadway shows is down 17% when comparing 2024 to 2020, according to a New York Times article from March. Concert ticket sales are up for the world's biggest acts and venues, but smaller players are struggling with skyrocketing costs. Beyond changing consumer trends in the live performance industry, the three-headed monster of rising labor costs, increasing construction expens- es, and the diminished availability of capital impacting development projects of all types threatens to hinder potential theater revitalization efforts as well. Foothills and Strand One way to insulate these venues from the recent struggles of the theater industry is to diversify their potential uses. Figures involved in efforts to reoccupy the Strand eatre in Clinton and the former Foothills eatre in Worcester, now dubbed the Mercantile Entertainment Center, feel the best path forward for these venues is for them to be multi-use spaces. PHOTO | EDD COTE A R C H I T E C T U R E , E N G I N E E R I N G , & C O N S T R U C T I O N Strand Theatre owner Justin Barrett (left) and Clinton Community & Economic Development Director Phil Duffy are looking for the next tenant for the venue, which has been shuttered since December 2021.

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