CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Residents leading the effort to restore the historic Ritz Theater downtown celebrated Monday night after gaining approval from the city's Type B board.
This means thousands of dollars from sales tax revenue earmarked for economic development could be used for the project.
The unanimous vote by the board brings the theater closer to obtaining a reimbursement grant from the Texas Historical Commission. The next step is gaining approval from the city council.
Cheryl Votzmeyer-Rios is the CC Patch Executive Director.
"I'm expecting that to happen with council we have our construction team ready to start our project, just waiting for the go," she said.
In January, she gave 3NEWS a tour of the venue that carries decades of history of local talent and major stars who graced the stage. The theater, which opened in 1929, closed its doors 60 years later in 1989.
"It's going to make such a huge difference in our community, the community impact what the arts does anyways is 10 fold plus 100 fold," she said.
The nonprofit has enlisted OTJ Architects from Washington, D.C., to restore it to its former glory. OTJ has successfully renovated more than 200 historic theaters across the United States. As the project progresses with a complete venue restoration, Rios is optimistic about the end result.
"We had EverGreene architectural arts to do a paint analysis in the last couple of months super exciting I got to see the original colors of the theatre. What we have now is this contrasting red with cream, going to go back to a very elegant calm space," she said.
The $230,000 grant from the Texas Historical Commission will be earmarked for weatherproofing the building's façade. Susan Palmer, founder of Palmer Westport Group, a consulting firm specializing in historic theater restoration, noted that the repairs go beyond the surface.
"Beyond the change you will see it is a unifying experience this is a long haul," she said.
Palmer said that the revitalization process will contribute to the restoration of a downtown area.
"I always like to say what happens outside the building is as important as what happens inside the building. Once you have a 1000 seat facility that's welcoming people in one two three times a week and you have 900 people walking into downtown that many times in a week, it transforms a downtown," she said.
Rios said that the objective is to establish a versatile theater with plans for an addition to the historic building.
"Not only a secondary theatre which we hope to have, convertible into events, birthdays. There's so much we are going to do," she said.
The money from the commission grant has a time-sensitive nature, as the work must be finished by the end of March 2024. If the council approves the Type B funds, they could access the funds within two months.
The estimated total restoration time for the project is approximately 3 to 4 years.
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