KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — The Kalamazoo State Theatre announced it will pause operations later this month as it looks for new owners.
The theatre’s last event will be Almost Queen and Lisa Can’t Sing on Saturday, Nov. 23.
If you had tickets for an event scheduled after Nov. 23, you can get a refund from the same place you bought it. The box office will be able to refund only tickets bought there and will be open through Dec. 5, with extended hours listed online.
The theatre said the closure is intended to be only temporary and will be used to look for a new organization to operate the venue.
“After owning and operating the Kalamazoo State Theatre since 1985, Roger Hinman hopes the closure will be temporary and would like to identify a new steward capable of relaunching the Kalamazoo State Theatre by its 100th anniversary in July 2027,” Executive Director Stephanie Hinman said Tuesday afternoon at a news conference.
“We’d love to reopen as quickly as possible, but it has to be done right,” Harry Phillips, director of marketing and development, said. “And that’s the ultimate goal for the theatre, is that we do it the right way with the right steward coming in.”
Stephanie Hinman said the theatre was “facing the inevitable,” listing programming as one challenge.
“This is a really important building. We’ve done our best for the last 40 years, and to prepare for the next 100 really takes some strategic planning,” she said. “It’s bigger than one manager, one company. It really has a lot of opportunity, and I think this will hopefully open some doors for this building and for the community.”
The goal is to find a nonprofit to take over.
“I really hope the building can remain community-focused,” Stephanie Hinman said.
But she acknowledged the transition would be “difficult.”
“This building becomes a part of you,” she said.
The Kalamazoo State Theatre opened on July 14, 1927 and was designed by architect John Eberson, the release said. It is one of 18 Eberson atmospheric theatres still operating in the country. The Hinman Company bought it 1985. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021 and in 2022 won the Governor’s Awards for Historic Preservation.