Playhouse Theatre

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The Nahakama Group, an investment company, purchased all 14,610 square feet of the block in 2016, and performed cosmetic rehabilitation on the Playhouse façade to attract potential buyers (“it was pretty much an eyesore,” contractor Ronnie Powell told the Times).

A new marquee sign was installed, and framed, faux-vintage playbills were screwed into the walls facing Central. The Vitale Brothers painted a black and white mural of Marilyn Monroe on the western wall.

In the final act, it wasn’t some showbiz sharpie with big ideas and a big budget who bought the Playhouse Theatre. The honor went to Penncap LLC, a company formed by St. Pete Urology physicians Dr. Reid Graves and Dr. Nicholas Laryngakis.

Graves and Laryngakis’ LLC paid $2.7 million for the Playhouse, along with a neighboring, smaller venue (at 1833 1st Ave. S) and two vacant commercial lots to the west.

“At closing, they weren’t sure what they were keeping and what was coming down,” said PaulaClair Smith, Colliers Commercial Real Estate Services’ managing director, who brokered the deal.

Nobody’s in a rush to tear the Playhouse down. “There’s no set timeline,” Smith added. Graves and Laryngakis did not immediately return calls for comment.

Still, with the demo permit filed away at City Hall, it seems all too clear the Playhouse Theatre will not make its 100th birthday.

“The majority of buyers I had for it were all what I call dreamers,” Smith said. “You know, they all had visions of restoring the venue to its quote-unquote previous glory. Or into something really ‘cool,’ you know?

“But it was just too expensive. It was just too much, to do that.”