The company behind the Denver Central Market food hall in Five Points has designs to revive a nearly century-old theater in northwest Denver as an entertainment venue and concert hall.
Before their liquor-license hearing for the property next month, the developers will pitch their plans to neighbors from the city’s Berkeley neighborhood — not all of whom appear to be on board with the idea.
Ari Stutz, a partner and the director of real estate for River North Art District-based Downtown Property Services, will open up the long-empty theater at 4979 W. 44th Ave. at 6:15 p.m. Thursday for a presentation and discussion with area residents. Stutz and his associates are calling the space the Yates Tavern.
“We pride ourselves on preserving, as best we can, old buildings in Denver,” Stutz said this week. “And we would like to preserve and reuse this old building in some sort of community entertainment capacity, which is what it was built for.”
Downtown Property Services, founded by developer Ken Wolf in 1997, bought the tile-roofed former movie house and a connected retail building for $2.1 million in 2016. Restoration and renovation of the retail side, which sits at the corner of West 44th Avenue and Yates Street, has come a long way. Tenants including a coffee shop, fashion boutique and hair salon already are doing business there with more coming soon, according to Stutz.
Things are moving slower when it comes to the old Yates Theater. Wolf got approval for a zoning permit in October to use the 5,691-square-foot space as an “arts, recreation and entertainment services, indoor theater and/or live performance space,” city records show. Since then, Downtown Property Services hasn’t pulled additional permits or submitted plans for review, city planning officials say.
The company has applied for a tavern liquor license, a retail food establishment license and a dance cabaret license, according to the city — the last of which is required for any alcohol-selling establishment that provides live entertainment or dancing for its guests. The Yates Tavern applications are scheduled for a public hearing at 6 p.m. May 8 at the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building, 201 W. Colfax Ave.
Stutz and company see the theater space as an opportunity to build a multi-faceted entertainment venue, one that hosts live music but also weddings and other events.
It’s the live music element that appears to be at the forefront of neighbors’ minds. The neighborhood is already home to one concert venue, the Oriental Theater at 4335 W. 44th Ave.
“The property has sat empty for quite a while now, so I think people just want to know logistics,” Niki Schwab, president of the Berkeley Regis United Neighbors group, or BRUN, said Wednesday. “What’s the capacity? What type of shows might they do? How often will they do shows?”
Laminated flyers talking about the venue have been stapled to light poles around the Berkeley neighborhood. The flyers raise concerns about potential noise and parking impacts. BRUN did not create the document, Schwab said. She took to the neighborhood’s Nextdoor page to encourage people to do their own research ahead of Thursday’s meeting.
“I’d just tell people that if they do have concerns, write them down and bring them along as notes (to Thursday’s event) so they don’t forget,” Schwab said.
Stutz is familiar with the flyers, too. He said they contain misinformation, and he encouraged people to come hear about the plans directly from him. He plans to talk about a good neighbor agreement he is working to develop for the property with input from BRUN and District 1 City Councilman Rafael Espinoza, he said.
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History will be on the agenda, too, Stutz said. According to his research, the Yates Theater debuted in 1926 as a 500-seat movie house. It later had life as the Rex Theater and may have been called the Coronet at one point, according to Denverite.
Most recently, the space was home to a piano showroom, but that has been closed for years. There were efforts in 2014 to reopen the theater space as a music venue under the management of Tavern Hospitality Group and Soiled Dove owner Frank Schultz, according to a story at the time in Westword, but those plans didn’t pan out. An LLC associated with Tavern Hospitality Group sold the property to Downtown Property Services.
“This story of this building should be able to be preserved and told to people,” Stutz said.
