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Could Varsity rise again as a theater?
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
August 19, 2011 at 8:00 am
PALO ALTO, CA — One of the more interesting conversion-styles of the past twenty years, theater->bookstore could be reversed in Palo Alto if some locals have their way. The Borders in the Varsity Theatre has closed so they’re pushing for it to become a theater again. Whether this is even feasible is still up for debate.
Read the full story in the Mercury News.
(Thanks to melfoody for providing the photo.)
Comments (2)
Another theater-turned-bookstore, the former Mayland Theatre in Mayfield Heights, OH: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/7394 became a Barnes & Noble bookstore for a few years before becoming “Boneyard Grille”, a bar-and-grill restaurant. If the Varsity’s renovation as a Borders was just like the Mayland’s renovation as a Barnes & Noble, chances are the interior was gutted and the flooring flattened, making a renovation back into a movie theater difficult and expensive.
On the other hand, if the Varsity’s theater-to-bookstore conversion was more comparable to what happened to the Alabama in Houston or the Runnymede in Toronto, the return to showing motion pictures or conversion to general theatrical use would be less of a challenge.