Grand Theater’s revival plans spark high hopes for Del Paso Boulevard businesses
A new effort to restore the long-dormant Grand Theater in the heart of Sacramento’s Del Paso Boulevard has cheered North Sacramento business leaders who see the revival of the shuttered movie house as another step toward an economically revitalized uptown.
Renovation is focused on the interior of the 27,000-square-foot site at 1915-1917 Del Paso Blvd., with plans for live entertainment, dining, weddings and other events, along with movie nights returning to a theater that debuted in 1942, but has been vacant for years.
Woodland-based project owner Kabul Singh envisions event programming that “brings different communities, different cultures, together” in a 600- to 700-person venue. “Movies, dinner, local artists, music — if it’s a movie night, dinner and cocktails,” Singh said Tuesday.
Plans to transform the art deco theater into a multi-use or live music entertainment venue along the lines of downtown Sacramento’s Crest Theatre or Auburn State Theatre came into focus Monday with city planners’ release of site plan and design review documents.
Project and permit reviews by building and planning staff are expected in December, said city officials.
“This is an important commercial building on Del Paso,” said Sean de Courcy, an associate planner at the city’s Community Development Department.
Along with the nearby Iceland ice rink about a block away, reviving the art deco architecture that stamps this historic boulevard “is important to revitalizing the corridor,” de Courcy said. He added the improvements planned for Iceland are hoped to be part of a “starting point of a renaissance” for Del Paso Boulevard.
But there are potential stumbling blocks beyond a still-unchecked pandemic that has hobbled businesses in Sacramento and across California and devastated the entertainment sector.
A frustrated Singh on Tuesday said Sacramento city economic development officials have stalled on economic assistance and consultation, saying: “The city keeps promising and dragging their feet.”
Singh said he is seeking a loan to help buttress the project but he was not clear whether the renovation would falter without it.
Singh launched the Grand renovation more than a year ago and estimates the project will take about $3 million to complete. Once the theater opens, Singh said he expects to employ upwards of 200 people per event, from kitchen and front-of-house to custodial and security staff.
Leslie Fritzsche, economic development manager for the city of Sacramento, acknowledged on Wednesday that the Grand “is an expensive project,” and left open the possibility of financial assistance.
Del Paso Boulevard Partnership officers said Wednesday they want the historic corridor with its wide boulevard, street-facing businesses, light rail access and proximity to downtown Sacramento to be seen as a close and more affordable option to downtown and midtown Sacramento.
“Until people are living here and coming here to the boulevard, it will continue to struggle,” said Deneb Williams, executive chef and partner of Del Paso Boulevard’s Woodlake Tavern, but with restaurants and other amenities, and talk of new housing projects on the horizon, there’s reason for optimism, Williams said.
“With the saturation and increase of rents downtown, it’s inevitable and essential for the boulevard to become” a destination, he said.
The business leaders said a reopened Grand can help get it there.
“Having the Grand as a viable project is tremendous,” said Daniel Savala, the partnership’s executive director and North Sacramento resident. Del Paso “is one of the last districts in the city with street-level retail. We want to try to tee it up as a multi-modal neighborhood. Bringing the theater back is another step in that direction.”
Charlie Tiwana, vice chair of Del Paso Business Improvement District and vice president of New Faze Development, took the baton: “This area really needs that — a place where people can go. We want to get bodies out here to shop here, eat here and live here.”
Aging, dormant buildings like the Grand and others were slated for redevelopment but were sold off after the state did away with local redevelopment agencies under former Gov. Jerry Brown, the city’s Fritzsche said. Since then, the city has been seeking developers to enhance buildings in the city’s older neighborhoods including North Sacramento, she said.
The Grand plan is to create a draw for North Sacramento as well as a destination for people across the Sacramento region, said Fritzsche, who calls it a “catalytic project” for Del Paso.
Classic movie houses across the region have been seen for their potential as business, arts and neighborhood catalysts for some time from the Guild Theater in Oak Park to the Roseville Theatre in Old Town Roseville.
Preservationists such as William Burg, board president of Preservation Sacramento, are excited by the prospect of a similar project on Del Paso.
“North Sacramento has beautiful art deco architecture — it used to be its own city, so it really has its own vibe, its own feel. A lot of what goes into a sense of place is its architecture. (The building) already has a connection, because it’s already part of the neighborhood,” Burg said. “It’s really the last chance for North Sacramento to save its one and only movie palace.”
And, like the Guild, Burg said, “it’s a bottom-up movement. (Turning) something that was vacant and a mystery into a living, breathing thing. That feels very bottom up.”
Del Paso Boulevard’s vision of a retail, arts and entertainment district has been at work for some time. The corridor has struggled with economic revival and reinvention and a lingering down-on-its-heels reputation that businesses here have worked hard to shake.
In recent years, the corridor has positioned itself as a haven for independent galleries and emerging artists. New offerings such as King Cong Brewing and Southpaw Sushi and restaurants like Williams’ Woodlake Tavern have taken root. Other businesses, too, including the Sacramento Observer newspaper, which recently left its longtime Oak Park home on Alhambra Boulevard for its new offices on Del Paso Boulevard.
“It’s a long time coming,” Savala said of the Grand project, though, he could just as well have been talking about what he’s seeing now along the boulevard.
“We walk to a cafe, there’s a brewery, Uptown Pizza. Del Paso is an amenity. Every person who comes here is surprised,” Savala said. “I’m not living downtown, but I’m feeling better about the future.”
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