Uptown Theatre
4816 N. Broadway,
Chicago,
IL
60640
4816 N. Broadway,
Chicago,
IL
60640
88 people
favorited this theater
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Some more links regarding the Uptown Theatre Restoration:
Friends of the Uptown (corrected link):
http://www.uptowntheatre.com/index.html
Block Club Chicago Article and photos/renditions: https://blockclubchicago.org/2018/11/14/uptown-theater-renovation-would-take-18-months-boost-capacity-to-5800/
Uptown Update: List of articles related to the Uptown Theatre: https://www.uptownupdate.com/search?q=uptown+theatre
Tribune November 13 article: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/ct-ent-uptown-rehab-plans-1113-story.html
Tribune June 29 article article: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/ct-ent-uptown-rehab-0629-story.html
Tribune 2015 history article: https://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-inside-uptown-theatre-unique-features-20150807-htmlstory.html
Uptown Theatre unofficial facebook page (friends and volunteers): https://www.facebook.com/pg/theuptowntheatre/about/?ref=page_internal
Still looking for an official page. Hopefully soon.
I’ve been through the Sanfilippo mansion. Incredible place. Even more with an additional building with an 1890s carousel, vintage calliopes and a train on about 50 feet of track. They hosted the 50th anniversary of Thunderbird for our club back in 2005. Brevity thanks you…
Artifacts from the Uptown Theatre in Chicago have over the years been removed and brought to the Sanfilippo Foundation’s Place de la Musique museum for safekeeping. Hidden away in boxes and barns — or merely hanging in sumptuous plain sight — the gorgeous chandeliers and fixtures of the Uptown Theatre have been vacationing these past few years in Barrington Hills. They have been cared for by an eccentric but loving crew of collectors, restorers and guardians, rescued from avaricious thieves and the neglect of a convicted slumlord as if they were evacuees rushed to safety from a war zone. And on Tuesday of this week, under the careful eyes of most of those who have cared for them for so long — they all began their journey back to Uptown Chicago and home.
The story of how the Sanfilippo Estate, the family home of Jasper Sanfilippo (a hugely successful American businessman and a nut magnate who turned proprietory shelling techniques into a business with 2018 net sales of $889 million) came to help save the treasures of the Uptown is a fascinating one. The Sanfilippo Estate is not an ordinary home, even by the grand standards of Barrington Hills. Sanfilippo, 87, is a collector of automatic mechanical instruments, but the word “collector” does not do justice to the scale of his world-class acquisitions, which now occupy several buildings on his estate, nor the level of restoration in which he has invested, which is dazzling. When his collecting was at its peak in the 1990s, Sanfilippo defined mechanical instruments very broadly, collecting pipe organs, fairground ticket booths, steam engines and locomotives, slot machines, stereoscopes, mutoscopes, vending machines, calliopes, a carousel, player pianos and impossibly complex lighting fixtures — brass arms and internal beading polished to a shine.
The Sanfilippo Estate is not a public museum but it is well known locally, and frequently opens its doors to charity fundraisers and for concerts in its grand private theater, home to an 8000-pipe 1927 Wurlitzer, one of the largest pipe organs in the world. To those who love historic theaters and cherish their decoration, it’s known internationally as one of the best private collections in the world.
When the late Louis Wolf and his partner, Kenneth Goldberg, bought the theater from the Plitt movie chain after the Uptown’s 1979 closure, it was clear to preservationists that the new landlords did not intend to restore the building. Wolf’s modus operandi was to let historic buildings fall into disrepair, usually because the land was expected to increase in value. All kinds of horrors were being discussed for the Uptown following its closure to the public as a concert venue. Somebody wanted to install an indoor go-kart track. Someone else wanted to turn it into a mausoleum. As all this chatter went on, thieves were already seen entering the building. Indeed, according to Bob Boin, a civil engineer and longstanding Uptown volunteer, some of the Uptown’s fixtures already were showing up a local salvage stores, where volunteers would proceed to buy them back and then store them in their homes. The volunteers decided something had to be done.
It so happened that Curt Mangel, an Uptown-loving engineer, was working at the Sanfillipo estate on the restoration of a steam engine. The Friends of the Uptown (both upper and lower case) decided that Mangel should approach Sanfilippo about quietly moving as much as possible to Barrington Hills where it could wait for a happier time.
If there is one hero in this story, Mangel (who now lives in Philadelphia where he tends to a pipe organ – the Wanamaker – inside Macy’s City Center) is that hero.
And thus, in 1992, the group persuaded Wolf (who did prison time for tax evasion) and Goldberg that they could write off the value of the chandeliers and other decorative elements if they donated them to a non-profit. Mangel and the other Uptown caretakers enlisted Sanfilippo’s cooperation in an agreement to return the items when — or, more accurately if — the theater was restored. And that process began.
The Uptown’s new owner, Jerry Mickelson of Jam Productions, was there for the first time. So were employees of Farpoint Development, Mickelson’s partner in the restoration. So were employees of the Chicago-based Schuler Shook, a consultant on the renovation. So were restorers, historic theater specialists and several members of Mickelson’s staff. So was Lisa Sanfilippo, Jasper’s daughter. So were the Uptown’s longtime caretakers such as Boin and Jimmy Wiggins, who spend the entire day grinning from ear to ear. All were agog at the size and abiding beauty of the main chandeliers, as restored by Sanfilippo’s staff. “The people that do this,” Jimmy Wiggins, an Uptown volunteer whom Jam eventually hired, said “do it because it is in their heart. How wonderful that they have a place to do what is part of their soul.”
The Uptown’s main chandelier hangs in the entrance hallway of the main Sanfilippo building. Few visitors would know its provenance. It is soon to come down — but Greg Leifel, the caretaker of the collection pointed out the obvious to a visitor: “We have other chandeliers to take its place.” Indeed they do.
Over the course of a morning, the group looked for wall sconces and light fixtures, finding some inside boxes in a workshop, others looking yet more beautiful than they ever first appeared. All of the originals are returning, and where there are missing fixtures, they will provide a template for fabricators to match the precise original appearance. Everyone is aware that all of this was almost lost. “If it had not cost $8.4 million to demolish the theater,” Mickelson said, “they would have knocked it down. It was that cost that saved the theater.”
Rapp & Rapp, the Chicago firm that designed and built the Uptown were known, in the words of Boin, for “overbuilding their steel.” There was so much steel in the Uptown that conventional cheap demolition methods could not be used. Hence the price tag, at which Wolf and Goldberg balked. “You couldn’t punch a pillar in a Rapp & Rapp theater and then watch the roof collapse,” Boin said. “Thank God.”
The weather was awful, but still a day for taking inventory, and giving thanks and a day that neither Wiggins nor Boin nor Mickelson nor, most likely, Sanfilippo, ever expected to come.
By Chris Jones, a Tribune critic (edited for brevity.)
Bob Boin, Dave Syfczak and Jimmy Wiggins are volunteers who help take care of the Uptown Theatre. (Ryan Ori, Reporter; Chicago Tribune)
A 37-year intermission has not been kind to the Uptown Theatre. Fires, cascading rainwater, sheets of ice, broken pipes, frozen boilers, rodents, crumbling plaster, financial distress, vandals, thieves and squatters have all taken their shots since the last concert there. Yet the 4,381-seat theater, said to be one of the most spectacular movie palaces ever built, is on the verge of a long-dreamed-of restoration to return the towering structure on North Broadway back to its 1925 opulence. In large part, the Uptown stands ready for its $75 million makeover because of a few guardians who’ve protected it from irreparable harm. The Uptown’s protectors have lent a collective hand to historic properties ranging from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Theatre. But the Uptown stands out as a particularly enduring and demanding labor of love. “When you love a place like this, it’s in your heart,” said Jimmy Wiggins, one of the protectors. “They’ll never build anything like this again. I mean, just look at it.” The men have endured ownership changes, broken promises, false starts, late-night alarms, pigeon poop and oil fumes. They’ve teetered from I-beams several stories above the stage in order to repair roof drains, shooed away intruders, and sacrificed countless hours of their nights and weekends — and, in some instances, their retirements. “Very few people know about them, but they’ve been heroes,” said Jerry Mickelson, co-founder and co-owner of Jam Productions, which has owned the Uptown since 2008. “I don’t know that I could have bought the building without them, because it might not have been standing.” The Uptown Theatre is finally to be restored to its 1925 glory. Inside the shuttered movie palace, the guardians include three men who have helped protect the theater since the 1980s: restoration expert Curt Mangel, 68; retired civil engineer Bob Boin, 72, a longtime volunteer on Chicago theater restoration projects; and Jam’s facilities manager, Wiggins, 57, who also oversees the Vic and Riviera theaters on the North Side. Retired Chicago police officer Dave Syfczak, 66, who watched movies at the Uptown while growing up in the neighborhood, has been a volunteer security guard and handyman since the 1990s. Those four lead a larger list of people who have contributed to the Uptown’s survival. Most have worked as volunteers, with approval of the property’s various owners. “I always told the guys, ‘Just keep it alive and its time will come,’ ” said Mangel, who now lives in Philadelphia. “By the grace of God, the economy and everything else, the right things came together. We’re overjoyed that day has finally come. “The people of Chicago are not going to believe what they have when it’s done.” The Spanish Baroque structure at 4816 N. Broadway roared to life in 1925 as the flagship of a Balaban & Katz theater chain known for its breathtaking movie palaces. Much later, it became known for concerts by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, the Grateful Dead, Prince and the Kinks. The last show was a J. Geils Band concert on Dec. 19, 1981. The property cycled through a series of owners who proposed but never executed plans to bring it back to life. Finally, in June, Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled plans for a $75 million renovation, backed by funding from several public and private sources. The joint venture of Jam and Chicago real estate firm Farpoint Development plans to begin the heavy lifting by the summer, with plans to reopen the Uptown as a live events venue in 2021. It is envisioned as the centerpiece of a broader entertainment district in Uptown, which is also home to venues such as the Aragon Ballroom, Riviera Theatre, Wilson Avenue Theater and Green Mill nightclub. Farpoint principal Scott Goodman credits the caretakers for the Uptown’s survival, and said their dedication demonstrates the strong pull many people feel toward it. “It’s that kind of building,” Goodman said. “I don’t think there’s another asset in Chicago where people have this kind of emotional attachment. It’s a magnificent structure with amazingly ornamental finishes, and it’s so instrumental to the success of the neighborhood. To get those things all in one bucket, there’s nothing else like it.” The group of Uptown watchers has endured, even years after Mangel eventually moved from Chicago. “It was years of backbreaking work and we had several (redevelopment) deals fall apart, which was heartbreaking,” Mangel said. “I don’t regret it one bit. I’m very proud of the guys for sticking with it and keeping the torch. I passed the torch and they kept it burning.” Mangel’s tinkering skills have led him to a broad range of projects, including once repairing the clock on Wrigley Field’s scoreboard — which he said led to an on-air shout-out from Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray, who had often complained about the clock’s neglected condition. Other restorations included the clocks in the Waveland Fieldhouse tower along Lake Michigan, just east of the ballpark, and chandeliers at the Chicago Theatre in the Loop. He’s moved around the country to lead other restorations, including Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, N.Y., and Denver’s Paramount Theatre. Mangel now lives in Philadelphia, where he led the restoration of the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, the largest functioning pipe organ in the world. The Uptown proved especially challenging, because of its sheer size and the building’s decades-long vacancy. To prevent pipes from freezing, the men burned thousands of gallons of gummy, low-quality motor oil in an old boiler. Firing up the system took hours of exhausting work, and the fumes frequently left people in the boiler room feeling sick. The process also sent black smoke pouring from the building, which would cause neighbors to call 911. “It got to the point where we had to call the Fire Department to let them know we were going to start the boiler at the Uptown,” Syfczak said. When firefighters were called on those instances, the Uptown guardians hustled to meet them out front. “Or else they’d use their key to come in,” Syfczak said. “And their key was an ax. So I repaired the doors three or four times too.” There also were real fires, including one time in the 1990s when on a late-night security check Wiggins discovered homeless people huddled around several campfires on the building’s marble floors. Other intruders, including metal scavengers, would set off the Uptown’s alarm. “When I lived a block away, I’d have to go scare the bejesus out of someone who was in the building,” Mangel said. Many of the Uptown’s unique and highly valuable light fixtures also were snatched. Looting led to the decision to pack up ornate chandeliers and other remaining fixtures. They were transported to the Sanfilippo Foundation’s Place de la Musique museum in Barrington and other Chicago-area locations, where they’ll remain stored until the late stages of the theater’s restoration. “That was painful for us, because part of the beauty of the building is the magnificent light fixtures,” Mangel said. “But we had to do it or they would all be gone.” Critters also have snuck in. Syfczak once decided to clean a wall of pigeon poop near the theater’s front windows, only to encounter something else. “As I put a shovel through it, a stench was released, and mice started jumped out of the pile of dung,” Syfczak siad. “That was one of my worst days here.” Better days are near, finally, because of a complex financing package that includes state and federal funds, as well as debt and equity secured by the development partners. Farpoint and Jam’s pending renovation is validation to those who thought the theater was worth saving, but it’s bittersweet for them as they move into the background. “There is a little tinge of almost depression when you’re no longer involved with it,” said Boin, who previously volunteered for eight years helping restore the Chicago Theatre’s organ. Although the Uptown has swallowed up their spare time, it’s also been a home away from home for the friends to gather, talk and tinker on other projects. “We have to give up our clubhouse,” Wiggins joked. Then he turned serious. “We’re overjoyed that the building is going to be restored and used again, because it really comes alive when there’s people in here,” Wiggins said. “This is fun. This has been our sanctuary. I think we’ve all enjoyed it. But when you see people here smiling and looking at it, and the building comes alive, that’s the best gift of all.” ( )
That is interesting Bobby. I wasn’t aware that a liquor license was involved. I walked by the Granada one Saturday afternoon in 1985 or 1986 and saw that one of the front doors was partially open, with a large hose running out of the building into the street. It was draining water out from somewhere in the theater. I tentatively went inside and looked around, expecting to get yelled at by someone for being in there. But I never saw anyone. I just walked around all over the first floor, not venturing up to the second level. It was spooky being in there, but it was really an amazing experience. The Granada was very much like the Marbro, and just as irreplaceable. I’m grateful this isn’t happening to the Uptown. I toured the Uptown in the late 80s with a THS group, and there was very little lighting once you got past the main lobby. That also got pretty spooky when we got to the upper levels.
I know this is the Uptown site and we all love the Uptown and looking forward to the grand re-opening. This is for Scott: Can you just imagine if the Granada Theatre had the same fate. Can you imagine a restored original waterfall marquee & blade sign with LED lighting up the facade. It almost happened. Lou Wolf paid $200,000 to Plitt for the building only. New carpets for inner lobby & main floor. Re-covered main floor seats and a new bright red stage curtain. I saw it all.. It was the refusal for getting a liquor license approved that doomed the project. Something that all venues have today with multiple bars in place needed for the cash registers. That was a major loss for movie palace lovers!
The Marbro was incredible indeed. The demise of its near-twin, the Granada, was particularly tragic, because that theater could have succeeded. It was in a good location (I thought) and was in decent condition before they purposely let it fall into ruin. Very similar to what happened in St. Louis to the Ambassador. Fortunately, the Uptown survived, or has to this point at least. I’m sure that its relatively high demolition cost helped fend off development.
The Belmont was just as you say it was… My favorite was the Granada because it reminded me of my much loved Marbro on the west side.
Yes Bobby, it should be exciting. Seems like a million years ago when I saw a movie there in the mid-60s. Only went there once when it was a movie theatre. At that time it was still in pretty good shape, still had most of its artwork and furnishings. I guess its history is similar to that of the Kings in Brooklyn, though I don’t believe the Kings had a run as a concern venue as did the Uptown. With respect to the North Side houses, as much as I love the Uptown, I was more taken with the Belmont. Went there once in the late 50s or early 60s. I thought that place was magical, and fun to roam around in. The North Side had some incredible venues.
Hi Scott!!! I can hardly wait for the summer of 2019 to witness the beginning of the re-birth of the Uptown Theater. I will only see it from the outside. The removal and installing the new marquee and blade signage should be thrilling just by itself. I hope they will show a special movie sometime and really show this masterpiece off to people that used to patronize this movie palace!
It’s still a mystery to me. Nevertheless, an interesting photo.
I’m not sure though, since the Uptown Update link says it is the back of the Green Mill. It could be after the demolition of the gardens that were behind it before the Uptown was built.
The shadow I referenced was apparently cast from a chimney across the street, if you compare the two photos below.
The 1st is from Summer 1925 before construction is completed. The 2nd is from 1926 and after the marquees on both Broadway & Lawrence are completed. The shadows are cast longer in the second photo, as evidenced on Lawrence as well.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/69/photos/193200
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/69/photos/241145
David Zornig – you may be correct about the photo, but if that view is looking west, I don’t see how the Green Mill could be on the left. That would be where the auditorium currently sits. Perhaps the Green Mill is at the lower left, mostly out of camera view? Whatever is casting a shadow on the Uptown’s lobby wall in the 1925 photo is much closer to Broadway than is the chimney in the construction photo. Okay, maybe I’m over-analyzing this.
Chicago’s Community Development Commission members (appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel) approved the public financing elements for partners Jam Productions and Farpoint Development and the $1.00 sale of a 31,000-square-foot city-owned parking lot at 1130 W. Lawrence Avenue one-half block south and a half-block east of the theatre. The lead architects will be Lamar Johnson Collaborative (founded by Lamar and Lisa Johnson); theatre consultant Schuler Shook (PALACE, St. Paul. and KINGS, Brooklyn); MacRostie Historic Advisors, tax-credit specialists; Forefront Structural Engineers; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, façade restoration; WMA Consulting Engineers, mechanicals; and Conrad Schmitt Studios. Reportedly the $75 million restoration includes $13 million in tax increment financing (TIF) assistance, $14 million in property-assessed clean-energy financing, $3 million in Adopt-a-Landmark funding, with the rest from investments by Farpoint and Jam and from a commercial bank loan. There’ll be new elevators and concession areas and seating for about 4,100 but with some removable seats on the Orchestra Floor to permit up to 5,800 including standees. The UPTOWN’s last event was a concert by the J. Geils Band on December 19, 1981. Expectations are for 200 short-term construction jobs and 200 long-term positions at its reopening.
Given the shadows, I think that is looking West from Broadway, through what would later be the lobby. The Green Mill’s building is to the left. If you look at the below 1926 photo, it appears the building to the right of the Uptown entrance is either getting a new facade or a new building was built after the 1924 photo. There also appears to be a chimney in the 1924 photo, that is casting a shadow on the Uptown’s wall in the 1926 photo.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/69/photos/225660
Is the view in the photo looking north from the Green Mill? Broadway would be to the right?
Uptown Update link with a 1928 Sanborn map & 1924 construction photo.
https://www.uptownupdate.com/2018/11/from-post-office-to-parking-lot.html?fbclid=IwAR1EG5kjlcU0wUenBLoXWBUfjN0ez4BBc9N8gnKiyCslOW-C-0HDsjYTnqQ
Start date for renovation has been announced.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/ct-ent-uptown-rehab-plans-1113-story.html?fbclid=IwAR1znkrsboimbhQcXU9VTC5Yb0jBnLOm9zUgtCJoX6hJrRs30omr4WjXzlk
Uptown Update link with renovation drawings.
https://www.uptownupdate.com/2018/11/first-peek-at-planned-restoration-of.html?fbclid=IwAR38xxQRXQWLaOr-zRfFntEqb39aLoZPa3tCArXXWPhmQHnz24BO62arROw
“The Case Against An Uptown Theatre Restoration” can be read here
TV news coverage of the restoration project and its impact on the neighborhood can be viewed here
Restoring The Dream: The gilded interior of Chicago’s Uptown Theatre remains mostly intact, ready for a $75 restoration project that will be the centerpiece of a neighborhood renewal years in the making. Jam Productions bought the building more than 10 years ago and, in partnership with a local developer and the city of Chicago, is on the verge of bringing the landmark back to life.
Jam Productions’ Jerry Mickelson and Arny Granat could be within months of realizing a decades-long dream: breaking ground on a $75 million restoration of Chicago’s ornate, landmark Uptown Theatre, which they purchased 10 years ago for a reported $3.2 million.
They knew it would take a massive injection of financing to bring the building, closed since 1981, back to its gilded, ca. 1925, Spanish Revival glory. And Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel knew he had an as-yet unfulfilled 2011 campaign pledge to create an entertainment district in the Uptown neighborhood.
Mickelson and Emanuel jointly announced June 29 they’ve found a partner in Farpoint Development and a patchwork of funding that, pending city council and regulatory approvals, should enable restoration to begin in fall on a 5,800-capacity Uptown Theatre.
A new partnership entity will be formed as a joint venture between Jam Productions and Farpoint, which is one of the city’s biggest commercial real estate developers. In addition to the Uptown restoration, a comprehensive streetscape plan will help bring together the vision for an entertainment district that will also include the 2,300-capacity Riviera Theatre, also operated by Jam, 4,378-cap Aragon Ballroom, booked by Live Nation, and Green Mill Jazz Club that seats about 100.
The $6 million streetscape project includes improvements to surrounding streets, with a new pedestrian plaza, sculpture and public stage all expected to be completed this summer.
But it’s the Uptown Theatre that is the unquestionable jewel in the city’s crown, and the object of Mickelson’s deep affection as not only a concert promoter but a Chicagoan. The Uptown long ago was granted “landmark” status – from façade to stagehouse – which likely saved it from the wrecking ball fate of so many other movie palaces of its era. “Jam did all the concerts there from Oct. 31, 1975 with The Tubes through Dec. 19 1981 with the J. Geils Band,” Mickelson proudly says. “At that time, the theatre was owned by a small family, not theatre operators, and they weren’t putting any money into the venue. When I walked into the theater on that cold December day, we had to purchase the oil to get the furnaces going to heat the building because they couldn’t afford it. The bathrooms were barely functioning, so I told the owner he had to close it. And he did and gave it back to the people he bought it from. “But the only damage was in the winter of 1982 when some roof pipes burst because the owners didn’t put the heat on. But other than some small, minor plaster damage, everything’s there. It’s not one of those old, decaying, decrepit theaters. It’s a landmark building, inside and out,” Mickelson says.
He might have come to regret telling those owners they had to close it. Twenty five years later, the ownership was subject to a battle for control between Jam, Live Nation, AEG and Madison Square Garden Co. at various times since at least 2006, when AEG and Live Nation last kicked the tires at the old building. Two years later, Live Nation appeared on the brink of making a deal to lease the venue from the city of Chicago until a final bid was scuttled by a dispute over who actually owned the property.
As it turned out, Jam Productions and Joseph Freed & Associates LLC owned a second mortgage on the Uptown property. The holder of the first mortgage, David Husman of investment firm Equibase, refused their offer of $1.3 million to pay off the mortgage. “That doesn’t stop us from doing anything other than what we’ve been trying to do and are in court over, which is trying to pay off the mortgage,” an impassioned Mickelson told Pollstar at the time. “We paid off the first mortgage, but they sent us our money back. We don’t believe that’s legal and that’s what we’re fighting over.”
But a complex scenario was made simple by a court-ordered sale in July 2008. Jam was the sole bidder, and bought the Uptown for $3.2 million. At about the same time, the worst recession in memory struck, making financing for a rehab project all but impossible. “It’s been a long journey over the past 10 years but I can see the finish line is right ahead of us,” Mickelson tells Pollstar. “It’s not easy to restore a theater like this without being a city or municipality, just doing it privately is difficult. But we will get it done.”
Not all of the financing is in place. According to Mickelson, about $49 million of the $75 million is secured – but “we’ll get the rest,” he says.
As for the Uptown itself, plans call for interior improvements including new elevators and concession stations; mechanical, electrical, plumbing and “life safety” systems, and restored decorative finishes, New seats and a reconfigured first floor of the three-story building will reduce the old theatre’s seated capacity from about 4,400 to 4,200 – though some floor seats will be removable, allowing for a total capacity of 5,800.
Exterior work will repair the building’s masonry and terra cotta and improve marquees and related signage, among other improvements, according to a statement from Emanuel’s office.
“The Uptown Theater has been a staple of the Uptown neighborhood’s past, and will be a strong asset for the community’s future,” Emanuel said. “The restored theater will be the centerpiece of the new, revitalized Uptown entertainment district, giving residents and visitors another way to experience world-class culture and entertainment in one of the City’s most storied neighborhoods.”
Mickelson also envisions the restored theater as a catalyst for lifting up Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, and compares its potential impact on Chicago’s North Side to that of the Fox Theatre in Oakland, Calif. “It’s an economic engine that starts everything else. After the Fox [in Oakland] opened, and the Paramount was already opened, that created some nice synergy that allowed the Uptown part of Oakland to come alive as well,” Mickelson said. “This is more than just about concerts. It’s creating jobs, it’s creating new businesses.”
It’s also about creating education and job opportunities for area youth and, to that end, Mickelson’s vision includes collaborations with organizations like After School Matters, a program of the Chicago public schools, and the nearby Peoples’ Music School that provides free music education to 600 kids. “We are going to provide them the opportunity to be part of the Uptown Theatre, starting from the restoration phase all the way through opening and when we’re presenting events,” Mickelson explained. “I decided to make a program that benefits students and the education they can get that they normally would not have access to. They’re going to be part of this and we’re going to let them use the theatres for fundraisers and rehearsals, things like that.”
Redevelopment agreement details will be finalized this summer and presented this fall to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, the Community Development Commission and the Chicago City Council for review and approval. Restoration work would start later this year and be completed in 2020.
“Given its past, size and potential impact on the City’s cultural landscape, the Uptown will be one of the most significant restoration projects in the city’s history,” said Department of Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman. (Pollstar, by Deborah Speer)
Recent news article explaining “Why the Uptown Theatre Restoration Is a Big Deal” can be viewed here
I bet Chris Jones was thinking of the Aragon Ballroom which is atmospheric when he wrote the article… I didn’t realize Live Nation owns the Aragon when I looked it up. This is wonderful exciting news for the beautiful Uptown! Bravo Jam!!
The Uptown is not an atmospheric, even partially.