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Paramount and Princess Theatres - Opportunities + Ideas

IanO

IanO

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Can we save these? How can we make them viable? How to incorporate them into a new development on or above?
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I have always thought that the Princess would be an excellent arm of Fort Edmonton, but located in Old Strathcona. There is a huge opportunity here to recreate the cinema experience that was so key to social life in earlier decades, along with retro film classics and Alberta/Canada content.
 
Paramount:
Retain as part of the podium for a multi-use high-rise tower, and convert to a pub/live music venue (similar to On The Rocks).

Princess Theatre:
Leave as-is, but transform from a movie house to a live theatre/music venue. Who knows, it may become one the hot attractions for the Fringe!
 
The Palace Theatre in Calgary is a good example of how to repurpose a historic movie theatre into a special event facility. There's currently a gap in Edmonton for mid-sized indoor concert venues, and I think this could certainly fill the void. This would probably be more successful at the Princess Theatre due to location, but personally I'd love to see it at the Paramount Theatre to get more foot traffic in that area.


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Personally, I say keep the Princess facade and completely modernize the interior into a Theatre and Cinema space. Could be used year round as a cinema, theatre and live music venue. Build a small addition for storage and ops space. Can be used year round, Edmonton Film Fest, Jazz Fest, Fringe Fest, collabs with Blues on Whyte etc, play a combination of big feature films and classics etc. Make it a unique experience place.

Paramount: Turn it into a combo night club, live music space situation. For the love of god we need a space like Union Hall/Midway downtown. Starlight (on the smaller side) is great, but we need a more modern venue. Im pretty sure Katz Group owns the Palace in Calgary (through Concorde Group), so partner with ONE Properties and get it going. I think Calgary getting a new Arena will shift Live Concert landscape a bit for larger acts, but Edmonton needs some more modern spaces to compete for the mid-size acts, that is more accessible with transit etc, and also get more action on that stretch of Jasper.
 
I hate to be a downer on the fantastic dreaming, but I know through a friend that at least one venue owner looked really hard at buying the Princess and fixing it up as a venue. The cost of purchase and minimum remodelling versus the most optimistic revenue projection was horrifically unworkable. It would be hard enough to cover operations and maintenance, never mind recouping the debt. And the current owners have a ridiculous asking price. Unless an angel investor or government steps in with serious grants, it ain't happening. The city doesn't have the money and there are too many other venues they are needing to shell out for (Citadel, Winspear). The province hates Edmonton culture, so maybe something from the feds?

Does anyone know the interior dimensions of the paramount theatre rooms? We desperately need a good rope climbing gym in the core and that would make a cool repurposing if they are tall enough.
 
SarcasticMarmot said:
I hate to be a downer on the fantastic dreaming, but I know through a friend that at least one venue owner looked really hard at buying the Princess and fixing it up as a venue. The cost of purchase and minimum remodelling versus the most optimistic revenue projection was horrifically unworkable. It would be hard enough to cover operations and maintenance, never mind recouping the debt. And the current owners have a ridiculous asking price. Unless an angel investor or government steps in with serious grants, it ain't happening. The city doesn't have the money and there are too many other venues they are needing to shell out for (Citadel, Winspear). The province hates Edmonton culture, so maybe something from the feds?

Does anyone know the interior dimensions of the paramount theatre rooms? We desperately need a good rope climbing gym in the core and that would make a cool repurposing if they are tall enough.
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100% agree. I do think a developer with deeper pockets could attempt to do this, but realistically, there are a lot of things that need to be in place for these ideas to work out and for it to be sustainable, not to mention a robust arts/theatre/music scene that can support two new venues.
 
A better solution will come -- we just have to be patient for the "right" solution and not pick up on the first so-so offering.
 
I don't think lumping the historic Princess together with the not as historic Paramount is at all helpful for this discussion. They are buildings in different locations from different eras. I don't see the former being torn down, the latter may be.

Of course, the Edmonton mentality is often to take the easy way out and tear things down, rather than do the hard work to preserve and find a use for it and for the most part the current generation has less appreciation for historic buildings that the previous one, so who knows.
 
^^ Outside the box thinking... maybe as a nod to the au courant crowd a feast of Edmonton podcasters with live audiences in attendance -- maybe Constance avec moi avec TJ avec 'O avec Gronk -- all on different nights at different times mixing in with stand-up and mystic musings... a curated offering on a panoply if subjects bolted together with local musicians (all genres) and local radio (CKUA) with Edmonton elites as guests on a broad range of subjects -- supported by Edmonton Universities and Colleges.
 
archited said:
^^ Outside the box thinking... maybe as a nod to the au courant crowd a feast of Edmonton podcasters with live audiences in attendance -- maybe Constance avec moi avec TJ avec 'O avec Gronk -- all on different nights at different times mixing in with stand-up and mystic musings... a curated offering on a panoply if subjects bolted together with local musicians (all genres) and local radio (CKUA) with Edmonton elites as guests on a broad range of subjects -- supported by Edmonton Universities and Colleges.
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Contingent on the building being restored to good condition, I could see tons of ways it could be put to use. But that initial investment seems like a hard sell without some big player taking a leap of faith. It's hard to imagine the U of A doing anything at all, nor the municipal government unless there were some partner who first agreed to make a big commitment. It's times like these that make me wish Edmonton had the same culture of philanthropy that Toronto and Montreal have.
 
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