Macy Lao has a vision for the Denver Yates Theater inspired by her time living in New York City — specifically, from hanging out at Brooklyn’s now-closed Videology Bar & Cinema, where film nerds would tipple and catch curated titles in a laidback environment.
“We really love the experience of being in communal settings while watching TV or films,” said Lao, who recently left her job at Warner Bros. Discovery as director of social media strategy and content at DC Comics. “We wanted that cozy setting, and we weren’t seeing it here.”
Still, it was a stretch for Lao to consider the Yates Theater when it was suggested by her real estate broker at Denver’s Sullivan Group. The nearly century-old, tile-roofed former movie house, at West 44th Avenue and Yates Street in the Berkeley neighborhood, has resisted multiple restoration attempts over the last decade-plus — most recently a 2019 project — a planned concert venue — that was canceled by the pandemic.
Yates operated as a silent movie theater until the 1950s, with various tenants arriving after that. But it has sat mostly empty for decades at a pedestrian-friendly corner. The high-ceilinged brick structure, which was built in 1926 and opened in 1927, was not on Lao’s initial list, but a visit in February changed her mind.
“As soon as we walked in we fell in love with the property, and I started rejiggering the concept,” said Lao, a Sunnyside resident. “I redid the whole thing within a week and a half.”
That gave Lao and husband Kyle Hagan the confidence to sign a 10-year lease in June for 4977 W. 44th Ave., which they plan to restore to its original use as a movie house. This week they’re inviting the public to take a look at their renderings and plan for a liquor license and zoning variance, which would allow them to use the 5,691-square-foot space as a lounge and 300-seat movie house that shows classic and second-run films.
In addition to surveying residents online, Lao and Hagan are holding a public meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, inside the Yates Theater. Residents can drop by for an in-person look, including through their phone screens with an augmented-reality display that shows 3D renderings in real time, and share opinions with the Berkeley Regis United Neighbors (BRUN).
“We also had some folks with the Historic Berkeley Regis’ land use and zoning committee out for a little preview a couple weeks ago,” said Rachel Marion, Principal at the MB Strategies consulting firm. “Folks had questions, but there was a lot of energy and excitement around the possibility of it being restored to its original use.”
It’s likelier an easier sell to neighbors and other businesses than the 2019 attempt, which met opposition from some residents at the time due to potential residential disruptions.
“We’ve heard more excitement about the movie theater plan than we did for the venue plan in 2020,” Marion said. “The building’s had some oddball uses, most recently the Piano Specialists piano store, but you could still walk by this 100 times and not realize what’s inside there.”
Now, the business coalition known as the Yates Theater Collective, which includes a half-dozen commercial neighbors such as Queen City Coffee, Cedar Hair Studio and MADÉ Tattoo Denver, is invested in the project, given its potential to bring more foot traffic to the corner — as opposed to competition.
The current proposal resets ideas that went nowhere in the past. That includes a 2014 reboot from the now-defunct Tavern Hospitality Group owner Frank Schultz that would have turned it into a music venue. Schultz later sold the building for $2.1 million to Ken Wolf’s Downtown Property Services and developer Ari Stutz.
Those owners’ 2019 plan also revolved around turning it into a concert venue and event hall, which never happened. But they were successful in drawing the aforementioned tenants that have kept the building and its connected retail storefronts from going dark completely.
The inside includes structural elements in need of serious work, such as cutting out an old boiler that no longer serves its purpose, Lao said. But it also includes original bathrooms with claw-foot toilets for the projectionist, who had his own quarters in the building, and elements of an American Fotoplayer player-piano that operators used for silent movie sound-effects and music.
Lao said the scant historical information that she and Historic Denver have found suggests Yates’ art deco auditorium was also used for summer stock theater performances, radio shows and other arts and entertainment over the years. The long history of the space, which at various times was also dubbed The Coronet and The Rex, reminds Lao to temper her expectations, she said, especially since others have taken on this same project in recent years and failed.
“I’m super excited about the vision that we have for the theater, but there are many many steps to get there,” she said. “The zoning variance is one of them, but there’s going to be more after that, and more after that. So I’m trying hard to pace myself. Who knows where we’ll be in eight months?”