Located on Lorain Avenue just west of West 117th Street in Cleveland’s Westown neighborhood, the historic Variety Theatre, plus its included retail spaces and upstairs apartments, is awaiting a rebirth. But it needs a new owner who can bring the restoration project across the finish line (Cresco). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Theater has tax credits, pending grants available
The Variety Theatre, 11816 Lorain Ave. in Cleveland’s Westown neighborhood, has had multiple owners and uses in its 98-year history. It’s about to have a new one as its owner has put the property up for sale this week.
Variety Properties LLC has owned the mixed-use theater complex for less than three years, acquiring it in April of 2022 for $450,000, county property records show. In addition to its 20,675-square-foot auditorium, it has 12 second-floor studio apartments and 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space set on 0.72 acres of land. All of the leasable spaces are vacant and the theater itself has been dark for 30 years.
Kelly Flamos, principal at Variety Properties, says her desire to sell didn’t come from a problem with running the theater. She had experience in turning around the operation of a community venue during her 10 years of owning Mahall’s in Lakewood.
Instead, Flamos never got the chance to manage the theater by booking acts and leasing spaces. She had to redevelop it first for a projected cost of $12 million. But she soon realized she wasn’t a real estate developer, despite having success in securing some significant public funds to aid in the property’s revival.
Current condition of the Variety Theatre’s auditorium that began life as a 1,900-seat vaudeville and silent movie theater. It later hosted rock concerts by R.E.M., the Dead Kennedys, Stevie Ray Vaughan, INXS, Metallica, Slayer, Queensryche and Motorhead — the latter being so loud it caused part of the ceiling plaster to fall. Complaints from neighbors got the theater closed (Cresco).
“After selling Mahall’s, I wanted to do something more impactful and in the city of Cleveland, but in the same vein — save a landmark, create a space for community and the arts, spur economic development in a neighborhood,” Flamos told NEOtrans. “Three years ago, I took a huge leap and didn’t know what I didn’t know, namely the super complex world of commercial real estate development.”
She’s asking $1.2 million for the property. Although that’s more than what she paid for it, it’s in line with the $1.08 million paid in 2009 by Friends Of The Historic Variety Theatre Inc., an affiliate of the Westown Community Development Corp.
The nonprofit group owned the theater for eight years, saving it from the wrecking ball, fixing its roof, electrical systems and restoring a marquee sign that was lost to a tornado in 1953. But the theater needed deeper pockets so ownership was transferred to another CDC, the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization.
Westown CDC continued to support the theater, making investments in the neighborhood to boost the theater’s prospects. That included demolishing underutilized buildings across the street to open up parking for the theater and its retail spaces. It also instigated a $3.6 million streetscape along Lorain Avenue, including an enhanced crosswalk with a pedestrian island on Lorain, linking the theater and parking lot.
Artist’s rendering of a renovated Variety Theatre including a potential streetscape along Lorain Avenue (Cresco).
“The Variety Theatre complex is poised for redevelopment,” said Westown CDC Executive Director Rose Zitello. “The 95-space green infrastructure parking facility that was recently completed supports the activation of the Variety Theatre and its storefronts to attract new or existing businesses to the district.”
A buyer will get access to the significant resources Flamos has gathered for the theater’s restoration. Those include an Ohio historic tax credit award of $1.4 million and $1.6 million in federal historic tax credits including a part-two approval. The theater is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Additionally, Flamos secured a $1.4 million Ohio Brownfield grant, Ohio Capital Budget appropriations totaling $335,000, another $300,000 in predevelopment funding from the Cleveland Development Advisors, 75 percent construction drawings, plus updated environmental testing and remediation plans.
“I’ve worked with an amazing team to get the ball rolling on restoring the Variety and we’ve made major strides in getting this decades-long dream to the finish line, but I’ve realized that real estate development is not for me.” she added. “I’m listing the Variety now, to make room for a more seasoned developer to take this project across the finish line.”
This rendering of the entire 34,000-square-foot Variety Theatre complex shows how large it is, including studio apartments over multiple retail spaces. It also shows the improved pedestrian crossing from a newly built, city-owned, 95-space parking lot across Lorain Avenue (Cresco).
She credited historic property developer MCM Company Inc. of Cleveland, preservation consultant Heather Rudge of Lakewood, LDA architects of Cleveland and Trzaska Rosen Faller LLC, also based in Cleveland in helping her get the redevelopment project as far as she could.
Brokerage Cushman & Wakefield (Cresco) has the real estate listing. It says the auditorium can be renovated into a state-of-the-art performing arts venue and event space, focusing primarily on live music, performing arts and private events like weddings, conferences and community gatherings. The apartments could be repurposed as a boutique hotel.
Zitello notes that the property has access to major freeways and a robust array of popular local scratch kitchens, bakeries and cafes. There are more than 30,000 vehicles per day traveling along Lorain’s seven miles of retail from Kamms Corners to the West Side Market make this “a desirable destination,” she said.
END
