A civic center for Jacksonville | News

A
Jacksonville organization has signed an option to purchase the historic
Illinois Theater building in the city’s downtown and has embarked on an
ambitious three-month, $8.8 million fundraising campaign to finance the
purchase and pay for the building’s transformation into a new multipurpose
civic center.

“This civic center will become not
only a cultural hub but an economic hub, and it will add to the renaissance
that’s going on around the square,” said Jacksonville Center for the Arts Board
member Larry Kuster. “It will create another reason why people should come to
Jacksonville, not only to find opportunities for entertainment, but also to see
this community as someplace where they can live and work.”     

The Center for the Arts Board plans
to exercise the purchase option from current owners Mark and Emily Hughes in
November, and if that occurs Kuster said construction to transform the building
into a civic center could begin in 2026 and be complete by late 2026 or early
2027.

The board has already raised
$500,000 toward the project, and due to the short timetable for action under
the purchase agreement’s terms, the board has begun sharing information about
the project with past and prospective donors.

Construction will keep the Illinois
Theater’s historic Art Deco style elements while configuring the interior for
multiple uses, Kuster said. The most dramatic changes will be to the main
auditorium where the floor will be leveled and the stage raised to accommodate a
variety of performances and other uses. A “black box” theater space will be
retained and upgraded, and meeting and administrative space will also be added.

 The original building on the
proposed civic center site was constructed in 1892 as the Grand Opera House. It
was renovated in 1927 as a movie palace and renamed the Illinois Theater. The
original structure was demolished in 1939 and the current building constructed
on the site.   

The option to purchase the Illinois
Theater building is the latest development in the push to establish a civic
center in downtown Jacksonville. The Center for the Arts Board initially looked
at the possibility of new construction on a vacant lot across from the
Jacksonville Municipal Building.

“What became evident over time is
that the price tag for that new construction was not going to be doable,”
Kuster said. “So we terminated the idea of new construction, and it was at that
point that the Illinois Theater became an option.”

The Jacksonville Center for the Arts
Board hired a firm to perform a feasibility study for a new civic center and
that study identified the need for such a facility in the community, according
to board member Drew Snodgrass.

“There is an amenities gap in
Jacksonville, and we need more infrastructure that supports cultural
amenities,” Snodgrass said. “There’s a huge opportunity here because the arts
and culture community in Jacksonville is thriving – we have the supply and
demand – what we don’t have is an institution to bring everything together.”

Snodgrass remembers the community’s
previous theater space in the Sophie Leschin Building on the former
Jacksonville Developmental Center grounds, where “the theater guild was
thriving and we packed the house dozens of times a year,” he said. “Even today
you can see the demand for our summer concert series on the square that
attracts big crowds, or the huge turnouts for performances at the Morgan County
Fair. It’s not like people aren’t interested. Whenever somebody puts forth the
effort to put on a cultural event, there tends to be a good uptake,” Snodgrass
added.   

The Illinois Theater is currently an
operating commercial movie theater and Snodgrass said the board hopes that
activity can continue if the purchase option is successful.

 “Cinema, live streaming and events
are a very big part of our vision,” Snodgrass said. “We envision a very
flexible overall space where we can show movies in either the new auditorium or
the existing theater, plus do live performances and other types of events.”

The civic center plan is the latest
development in the recent transformation of downtown Jacksonville. Local
entrepreneur Rabbi Rob Thomas and Garrison Group, a Springfield-based
commercial real estate firm, have teamed up to renovate many downtown buildings
as combination residential and commercial spaces, and many new tenants have
already moved in.

In addition, the Jacksonville Area Museum in the old Post Office building opened
in 2021 and is now in the midst of a project that will triple the institution’s
exhibit area and transform the space into an immersive destination for
visitors. A sneak preview of the museum’s construction progress will be offered
during the city’s Bicentennial weekend on Oct. 4.

 “Jacksonville has gained a
reputation as a place where things happen,” Snodgrass said. “It’s exciting to
be part of this renaissance. I have four young kids, and I’m pumped about
raising them in a town that keeps getting better over their lifetimes.”

Jacksonville Main Street is also
excited to see new uses being found for the historic buildings downtown.

“The Jacksonville Center for the
Arts has done a great deal of research developing their business plans and
projections, based largely on surveys and public feedback, so this project
looks to be very successful,” said Jacksonville Main Street executive director
Judy Tighe. “Jacksonville has a long history of supporting the arts in a wide
variety of forms, so having a facility that can accommodate many different
types of artistic performances will be a fantastic economic and cultural
attraction.”

 Visit jacksonvilleartscenter.com for
more information about the Jacksonville Center for the Arts project.