Went and saw a ton of "Opening Day" movies there in it's Prime....remember lining up early on Jasper with the other 1749 guests to see movies like: Terminator 2, one of the Star Wars, one of the Indiana Jones and a ton others...it was a ritual back in the day. Sadly, this ritual is non-existent....
 
Well I suppose we still have the theatres in City Centre, but somehow not quite the same. It was too bad nothing grander was developed in Ice District.

It is hard to repurpose something like this, but some other cities have managed to keep and restore some of their grand old downtown theatres.
 
David A said:
Well I suppose we still have the theatres in City Centre, but somehow not quite the same. It was too bad nothing grander was developed in Ice District.

It is hard to repurpose something like this, but some other cities have managed to keep and restore some of their grand old downtown theatres.
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Those that were restored were almost always vaudeville type theatres that also showed films but also had stages (sometimes with orchestral pits), green rooms, steeper rakes in their sloped floors, loading and storage, and sometimes even fly-towers etc., all things that are either impossible or extremely expensive to try and retrofit.
 
I can say a little more about it without giving away the farm -- there is about a 50/50 chance that this will move forward -- there are a lot of moving parts -- the proposal would include the Paramount refurbished and repurposed (multi-functional/multi-use) -- property adjacent would be a mixed use tower -- now I have come directly up to the line that I cannot cross over.
 
Sadly, a bunch of those spaces have seen folks getting into them over the last few years cause damage etc.

Here's hoping someone can incorporate an updated theatre/event space, rescue the important bits and pieces from the Silk Hat and do a mixed use development.
 
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Potemkin villages do look nice at least from one side, but I agree it would be better not to continue to go down this path too far.

It would be good to at least to see the nearby commercial spaces filled again. Perhaps that will happen over time as downtown retail vacancy slowly continues to go down.

The theatre is a bigger problem, but if it could at least be used even periodically for events or functions, that would be good too. The Garneau on the south side seems to have done fairly well.
 
HelpEd said:
Join me in prayer that this doesn’t end up as another parking lot. I’ve got a bad feeling about it.
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JAMSC Zoning does not have parking as a listed use, and it doesn't meet the criteria of City Centre Temporary Parking Use. Similar to the Melcor lot a block over, it can't be parking without rezoning at Council.
 
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