Rialto Theater
320 W. Main Street,
Kenedy,
TX
78119
320 W. Main Street,
Kenedy,
TX
78119
4 people
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I threw a website together over night for the theatre. it will eventully become a site to see what movies are playing and such but right now it’s pretty much just to show and tell what we’re doing to the place.
it was thrown together rather quick, and I’m by far not a proffesional web designer but please tell me what you think.
www.oldrialto.com
with the way things are going it will probably be about 6 months until we have the money to go back to Texas and get all the info and pictures needed on the projectors.
I’m not near them right now but I’ll see what I can do.
Please post more details about the projectors. Mainly make, model, serial number, and condition. There will be a few people here that may be very interested in them. If you could get pictures and provide a link to them somehow, that would help tremendously as well.
we’re not planning on restoring the building to original, about the only thing that’s going to be the same is the four outside walls, not even the roof is going to be the same, we have to replace it. we’re going to compleatly redesign the inside. also the building came with two small connected buildings, one on each side. We plan on turning one of them into an arcade and connecting it with the lobby of the theatre. the other we plan on opening up a video game store in where people can buy, sell or trade console video games. between the three we’re hoping it will make enough to simply pay the bills and feed us, if so we’ll be happy.
we won’t have to worry about a place to live since we can live on the top floor of the building and if this doesn’t work out we at least end out with an interesting place to live if nothing else.
we’re thinking of selling the old projectors if we can.
we chose this theatre because it was cheap to start with and we can put the money into it as we get it (we arn’t rich people)
all we did to the marquee was board up the bottom of it, the city wanted it a little more presentable before we left. it was wide open to where you could see all the rotted lumber in it and a bunch of wires were hanging down.
we have a lot of work ahead of us but at least we can do it at oour own pace.
Seriously man.
Wishing you good luck while walking down the street is one thing. Getting off the couch, driving to the theatre, parking the car and paying admission is another.
Not to mention the fact that the Rialto is devastated.
Good luck.
What have you done to the marquee?
Boy, you should really do a market analysis. It’s hard enough to make a theater remodel profitable in a large city, I can’t even imagine it in Kenedy (it’s cheaper to build new). Of all the great theaters available for sale, may I ask why you chose this one to tackle?
Of course the people of Kenedy would support the idea- it’s not their money! :) Just be aware that you will get a lot of support and people telling you they are happy about it, but whether they actually purchase tickets is a whole different story.
I just noticed the address is wrong here, it’s 312 W. Main st. not 320.
it is pretty slow there and there are a lot of empty buildings but I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a ghost town. close but not quite. They are, however, getting a super Wal-Mart there soon and a lot of people think that will help the town grow.
While we were there working on the marquee we had a lot of interested people come up and ask us about what we were doing. When we told them we planned on re-opening the theatre all of them seemed to support the idea very much.
IS kennedy as dead as everyone says?
We just found this forum…We are the new owners. You are correct that the place needs alot of work. Everything has been torn out and basicaly left in the middle of the floor. All of the seats are gone. When we went to look at the theater after purchasing it I almost killed my husband. The projectors were indeed still there. They are cast iron and weigh a ton. they are in storage in San Antonio TX. The original A/C compressor is in the basement and the size of a car, we believe we will need a crane to remove it. We haven’t had any monitary offers to help in the restoration so it will be a family project we expect to last a couple of years. The building can not be demolished due to the fact that the walls of this building support the buildings on either side with steel beams that run the width of the building. The seller decided to sell this theater because he is in the process of restoring other theaters in more populated areas.
The only floor remaining is the one under the projectors. If you have any questions we will be happy to answer them. You are welcome to contact us.
I was interested in this theater simply for what was left inside, and contacted the seller numerous times. For the vintage cinema memorabilia collector such as myself, there are still three large projectors inside, probably Simplex’s, and an old horn behind the screen. If they are in even decent shape, a person could possibly make a profit by selling them and demolish the building. If someone lived near San Antonio, there are some nice building materials to be had too (hardwood floors, inlay designs, old brick, etc.). You have to understand that Kenedy is a ghost town, and this building is being held together with dust. And yes, this is the 3rd time it has been listed on eBay. The seller knows close to nothing about this theater.
I am not an expert when it comes to reading the various reports available on E-Bay. But it looks to me like there have been problems with the transaction each time the theatre was listed.
Something smells fishy here. Even at the lower price of $2,000.00 that is very low for a movie theatre building. The website says the taxes are $136.00. That is also very low. Perhaps the building is falling apart. It costs more to have a garage added to your house today then to buy this theatre. Buyer beware.
lost memory those are my post on the other site …lol….thanks anyway//
it sold for $2,ooo.oo…………thats the old link were it sold for $8.000.00 but they did not pay…………..
View link
How do you go from selling Bon Jovi gear at ten dollars a pop on E-Bay to selling a theatre? Very strange. This is also the second auction for the theatre. The first time around someone acused the seller of not owning the property. There is a steady stream of small item sales in the two months preceding, almost as if to establish reputation. Why would the seller abandon the project and “buy a bigger theatre” when the city wants to help restore the theatre so badly?
All very strange.
love to see what they do with this………………..
Listed in the Film Daily Yearbook: 1941 & 1943 editions as having a seating capacity of 900. In the 1950 edition of F.D.Y. seating is given as 712.
I don’t know. A ruined theatre in a ghost town? I think $2,000 might be a rip-off.
sold…………….2,000.00………..two thousand dollars..
For sale on ebay ……….CHEAP
I lived in Kenedy in the early fifties, and the Rialto was our sanctuary. It was air conditioned, rare for anyplace then. I’m not sure when it closed, but the last movie I remember seeing there was The Great Escape in the summer of 1963, when on a visit to relatives. Its current state is heartbreaking. The town itself is a ghost town, so I guess there is not much hope of a revival.
Charles, I hope you didn’t actually have to go to Kenedy. A very depressing little town. On another note, it would be very nice if we could list theaters as ‘vacant’ under function, rather than just other. Vacant is sadly one of the major categories.