The final curtain is coming down for the old Wyandotte Theater now that city officials plan to tear down the old downtown cinema in mid July, but how this all ends for Wyandotte has yet to be written.
The city is taking bids to tear down the theater at the corner of First and Elm streets after the city's art fair concludes on July 14. City officials hope the cleared area will facilitate new development. A request for proposals on what to build on the site will be put out soon after the theater is razed. The site will be open to all sorts of proposals, such as a boutique hotel, department store or condos.
Local officials had hoped to reopen the vacant building as a theater again, although concluded that wasn't possible after meeting with entrepreneurs in the theater industry. They said, according to city officials, that a commercial theater needs at least 12 to 15 screens to be viable and the most the Wyandotte Theater could offer was six.
The Art Deco-style theater has been closed for 17 years and is completely gutted. It was the first multiple-screen theater in Michigan when it opened in 1936. The city bought the theater earlier this year for $802,600.
Source: Joseph Voszatka, Community Development Director for Wyandotte
Writer: Jon Zemke
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