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Village Theater in Coronado will renovated, reopen as triplex
posted by
CSWalczak
on
December 3, 2009 at 10:45 am
CORONADO, CA — Closed since 2000, it looks like the renovation of the Village will finally begin around April of 2010. Original announcements indicated that the work would be completed in 2009, but now grant financing has been secured, an architect engaged, and an operator has signed on to run the theater once the upgrades are completed.
An agreement between the city and Los Angeles-based Five Star Theatres guarantees the 9,000-square-foot movie house will be reopened in one year. In return for a Community Development Agency grant of nearly $2.7 million, Five Star Theatres has agreed to renovate and run the theater until 2026.
The Village Theater’s quaint facade, including the original ticket booth, the tall blade “Village” sign and terrazzo, will remain largely intact, but the main auditorium will be revamped by noted theater designer Joseph Musil into a three-screen cinema.
“Regrettably, we have to carve it up,” Five Star owner Lance Alspaugh said. “I’m not happy about it, but it was the only way anyone could have done it. The good news is we’ve retained a designer that is very impressive.”
Read more in Signon San Diego.
Comments (2)
With Joe Musil at the helm, patrons can count on experiencing first-rate decorative showmanship inside this theatre. In addition to Hollywood’s El Capitan, Joe’s credits include the Crest in Westwood Village, and the Fine Arts on Wilshire Boulevard. In the case of the El Cap and the Fine Arts the original features which have survived are honored, and where blank walls existed before, Joe creates fanciful but historically harmonious and appropriate new design. Westwood’s Crest is nearly all a more recent creation, there having been little to work with at the outset, but what was created is a stunner.
Coronado really needs a cinema… Why must residents be forced to drive over the bridge into San Diego? It does NOT make sense.
Everyone involved should be lucky that Joseph Musil has been chosen to direct this renovation. I don’t know of anyone more consummate than him. His theatrical studio/museum, in the Santora Arts Building in Santa Ana, is nothing else than magnificent!