The town of Cary announced today its purchase of a former movie theater, adding the 65-year-old building to its stable of downtown properties even as the paint dried on the $13 million Cary Arts Center a quarter-mile distant.
Cary paid $410,000 last Friday for 122 East Chatham Street, a structure last used as an auto parts store. Another million dollars or so of town funding will likely restore the building's marquee, sloped theater floors and interior balcony and add up to 160 seats.
The town hopes that within 18 months the building, which was the town's first indoor cinema, will become a venue for music, drama and film.
The town will draw the project's funding from an $8 million pool the Cary Town Council designated for downtown uses this fiscal year. The council approved the purchase in a closed-door session in May. It is the first major downtown project Cary has launched since Ed Gawf, the town's first full-time downtown manager, came on board about three months ago.
Gawf said the theater would complement the new arts center, which has a 400-seat theater. The town's other major performance space is Koka Booth Amphitheatre, an outdoor venue about five miles south of downtown.
The town's newest purchase stands at the center of downtown, near the intersection of South Academy Street and Chatham Street. The arts center is on the south end of downtown, and town hall at the north end.
"We really need something on Chatham," Gawf said. "This is the first effort along that line."
