Will Kentucky Theatre re-open? Lexington looks for management group for downtown icon
The city of Lexington is looking for a management group to re-open the Kentucky Theatre, which closed late last year due to plummeting ticket sales during the coronavirus pandemic.
The city released requests for proposals on Tuesday.
“We are absolutely committed to reopening the Kentucky Theatre as soon as possible,” Mayor Linda Gorton said. “It’s very important to find the right team to run it … someone who can continue the Kentucky’s popular traditions, and also bring in new ideas.”
Kentucky Theatre, which runs first-run and classic movies and is owned by the city, announced it was temporarily closing last fall. With too few movies being released and fewer customers, the city and the management group that oversaw the Main Street movie house agreed it was time to temporarily close.
The Kentucky Theatre Group, which operated the Kentucky Theatre, terminated its decades-old lease with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in October.
Howard Stovall, one of the members of the Kentucky Theatre Group, said he could not comment on whether the group was going to submit a proposal. The Kentucky Theatre Group also included Fred Mills, the longtime manager of the Kentucky Theatre.
The Kentucky Theatre first opened in 1922. After a fire from a nearby restaurant destroyed part of the theater in 1987, the community rallied behind the Main Street fixture. The theater reopened in 1992.
The Friends of the Kentucky Theatre, a nonprofit, has raised money for various updates over the years including new seats in 2014.
In addition to showing first-run movies, the Kentucky Theatre also showed many classic movies and movies not traditionally shown at other major movie theater chains.
As Lexington sends out feelers for management, other movie theaters once shuttered during the pandemic have reopened.
Regal Cinemas began reopening many of its theaters across the country in April after shutting down in October. Regal Cinemas at Hamburg re-opened May 7.
LexLive, a long-awaited downtown entertainment complex with 10 movie theaters, opened in March at the corner of South Broadway and High Street.
