Uptown Theater set for major renovation

The long awaited restoration of the once lavishly adorned Uptown Theatre is finally being planned to begin this fall and should open in two years according to Chicago Curbed. The $75 million dollar plan will bring the 4,381 seat historical building back to life. The theatre was built in 1925 and was designed by C. W. Rapp and George L. Rapp but had fallen into a dilapidated and decaying state. The building on 4816 N. Broadway closed its doors in 1981. This massive project will be taken on by Jam Productions and Farpoint Development. Jam Productions bought the property for $3.2 million after it went into foreclosure in 2008. $40 million in funding will come from the state and the city from many different agencies with Jam and Farpoint allocating the remaining $26 million. Jam Productions, a Chicago based promotion company will schedule many different events including dance, comedy and other live events at the theatre. Capacity can be enlarged to 5,800 seats which would rival the Auditorium Theatre and the Chicago Theatre.

Per the Chicago Tribune, Farpoint Development, led by Scott Goodman, also co-founded Sterling Bay and helped build that firm into one of Chicago's largest commercial real estate developers with projects such as McDonald's headquarters' move to the former site of Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios and Google's Midwest headquarters in a former cold storage warehouse. Goodman along with three other Sterling Bay executives left the company in 2016 to start Farpoint. 

 "The Uptown is an amazing asset in an amazing neighborhood and this was the rare opportunity to do something really cool."

Farpoint Development's Scott Goodman

An architect has not been chosen at this time while decisions are still being made as to how the public and private funds will be used for this restoration.

According to the Chicago Tribune, this will be a major breakthrough for Chicago's ongoing plans to redevelop the North Side neighborhood which is badly needed and restore the theatre as a concert and live entertainment site.

Local preservation groups such as Landmarks Illinois, Preservation Chicago and Friends of the Uptown, along with the National Trust for Historic Preservation had put the theatre on its list of the nation's most endangered places. They kept on fighting for this restoration and never gave up. The infrastructure groundwork by the city also helped get this renovation off to a start. In 2017, the Chicago Transit Authority opened its $203 million Wilson Avenue elevated station just a few blocks from the theatre. It is hoped that the Uptown will become a real anchor for revitalization in the area. At this time, even the $75 million price tag is still not known to be sufficient for this massive restoration.

"This is the fulfillment of a promise." "When I was still Mayor-elect, I talked about creating an entertainment district in Uptown. Our investments in culture are one of our best drivers of economic growth and job creation in our neighborhoods."

 Mayor Rahm Emanuel

The Mayor's office has stated that the financing for the theatre is coming from many sources such as:

- $14 million in financing through the State of Illinois' Property Assessed Clean Energy Act

- $13 million in tax-increment financing

-$10 million in Build Illinois bond funding

- $8.7 million in federal tax credits

- 3.7 million in the City of Chicago's Adopt-a-Landmark funds

- $26 million from Jam and Farpoint from a mix of debt and equity

The restoration also includes $6 million in streetscape enhancement to portions of North Broadway and also Lawrence and Wilson Avenues and Argyle Street. A new pedestrian plaza and public stage will be located south of Lawrence and Broadway.

Databid Inc. is showing this project (Project # 0073062918) in Design and Planning stage at this time. Click here to see details and track this project for real time alerts.

This Uptown Theatre has a wonderful and colorful history and according to the Chicago Tribune, when the building was first designed, it was touted as containing "an acre of seats in a magic city." The huge six story lobbies and extra wide staircases of the theatre could accommodate 4,300 people out the doors and another 4,300 people inside, all in 16 minutes. Five years after opening, more than 20 million Chicagoans entered through it's doors into a breathtaking, amazing world. One that the original designers, Rapp and Rapp, created to resemble the Palace of Versailles. The theatre boasted floating "clouds", twinkling lights in the ceiling and even a perfuming system underneath the seats.

The people in the Uptown community are hopeful that revamping the landmark theatre into the crown jewel it once was will mean economic revitalization and a drop in crime in the area.  Alderman James Cappleman of the 46th Ward said "It's going to bring more job opportunities to this area."