Each new year is guaranteed to bring change.<\/p>\n
The change in Auburn’s case will see the demolition of a landmark: the old Auburn Avenue Theater building at 1 Auburn Ave., at an as yet undetermined date early in 2024.<\/p>\n
The city of Auburn is in the preliminary stages of planning for a new theater complex. The plans encompass the property on which the Avenue Theater has stood since 1917, and the now-vacant property on which the old Max House Apartments and associated street-level businesses stood until destroyed by fire in July 2021.<\/p>\n
The old theater was condemned and has been boarded up since early 2022, when the razing of the adjacent Max House Apartments damaged it, rendering it unsafe to occupy.<\/p>\n
Built in 1926, the building was originally used as a bus depot, and later a movie theater and then a dinner theater. The city of Auburn entered into a lease in 2007 with the former owners, the Douglas family, which had operated the dinner theater.<\/p>\n
Once in charge, the city ran its Bravo! Performing Arts season from the theater, offering teen and adult performances of all kinds, including bands, comedy, tributes, even full-scale theater productions for adults and kids. Most of the touring groups were from the Northwest.<\/p>\n
In 2016, the city bought the theater outright. Receipts over the last 14 years show the theater was successful both in attracting people for entertainment in the downtown core and as a money maker. The venue hosted performances summing to about 80 each year with an average annual attendance of 14,000.<\/p>\n
Early drawings of the future complex envision a two-story theater extending to the corner of East Main and Auburn Avenue, about 25 percent larger than the old theater with additional seating.<\/p>\n
Among the many questions still to answer, however, are how the city would pay for a project estimated to cost between $8.5 million and $10 million.<\/p>\n
Daryl Faber, director of Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation, is undaunted.<\/p>\n
“When you have a mission and a goal, you have to have a plan in place, and I have a passion for getting this theater reopened in our downtown,” Faber told the Reporter in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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