Ritz Theatre
1912 S. Broadway,
Denver,
CO
80210
1912 S. Broadway,
Denver,
CO
80210
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South Broadway theater in foreclosure (Denver Post September 15, 2025)
A renovated theater along South Broadway in Denver’s Platt Park neighborhood is in foreclosure, but an owner says he’ll be able to pay off the bank.
The Jewel Theater building at 1912 S. Broadway was built a century ago and was home to a climbing gym for a quarter-century, until early 2018. In December of that year, real estate attorney Doug Norberg and business partner Paul Yaft bought it for $1.6 million and undertook renovations.
“We spent a bunch of money fixing broken and missing plaster and redoing flooring and fixing brick and stuff,” Norberg said last week. “We really tried to restore it to its former glory.”
In 2021 and 2022, the Jewel Theater was leased to a local company called Latin Event Co., which threw occasional music parties there, upsetting neighbors. Norberg said the theater hasn’t been used since.
“We’ve had a ton of holding costs and we’ve been servicing the debt until recently,” he said.
The Jewel is one of two theaters along the Broadway corridor in Denver now in foreclosure. The other is the onetime Webber Theater at 119 S. Broadway, which dates to the 1910s and showed pornographic flicks for years before being used by a distillery.
Reopened June 12th, 1952 as Ritz with:
grand opening ad posted.
Opened April 15th, 1926. Article posted.
Boxoffice, July 12, 1965: “The Ritz in south Denver has a marquee which proclaims in large letters "Gone for Coffee - Be Back Soon.” "
Jack, do you have any info on this restoration? I live near this theater and would love to know what’s going on.
The status should be changed to “Restoring” as that a massive restoration of the Jewel is in it’s final stages with hopes of completion by May of 2022. Even in its current state of development, the interior commands awe, from the glistening marble floor to the detailed ornamentations, the theatre is a sensory experience.
Was operating as: Kitty’s Cine Art as per of the Kitty’s chain in 1985, according to the Theatre Trade Directory of 1985-1986. This should be added to previous names
The original theater was a burlesquse house with limelights across the front of the stage for light.
The floor plan is on the indoor climbing site:
http://www.thrillseekers.cc/qtvr.php