The board of the Emery Center Corporation (ECC) has been working on plans to reopen the Emery Theatre which has lying dormant for about a decade.

Vision
A restored Emery Theatre is envisioned as a mid-sized performance venue and an educational, community-based arts facility with world-class acoustics. The concept is to operate the Emery as a presenting hall for performances aimed at a young urban audience.  The Emery can accommodate local and touring musicians, choral groups, lectures, movies and multi-media presentations, festivals, corporate meetings and conventions.

Current Activities
After several years of dormancy, the ECC board and its consultants have been working intently this year to identify a viable manager and program for the Emery Theatre.  Numerous professionals and volunteers have participated in preliminary construction work and planning.

• Urban Sites carried out $15,000 of interior demolition and debris removal.
• Over 100 Give Back Cincinnati volunteers participated in a major cleanup, painting and cleaning of the lobby and orchestra level.
• GBBN Architects have produced a code analysis and scope of work to establish the minimum work required to reopen the hall.
• Al Neyer, Inc., has prepared a cost estimate.
• Property Advisors has produced a valuation study establishing the market value and equity in the building.
• A new preliminary operating plan projects a $500,000 annual operating budget.
• Kaup Pender has been providing strategic counsel, feasibility research, budget projection, publicity support and  project coordination to advance this initiative.

Get Involved
 It will take the community coming together to bring this venue back to life. This arts based community development project and depends on the community of neighbors, or arts organizations, or preservationists and philanthropists.   How can you get involved to make a difference?

• Produce a fund raising event in it?  You and your organization enjoy a concert and party, and the proceeds go to ‘Save the Emery”
• Contribute the time and talents to re-hang the outside sign and reconnect the electricity to it on?  We need a good and giving electrician.
• Donate your time, talents and supplies to renovate the bathrooms and bring them back to working condition? Plumbers hear our call!
• Contribute to the ‘Save the Emery’ fund, please make your checks payable to Emery Center Corporation and mail them to Emery Theatre, 100 East Central Parkway, Cincinnati, OH, 45202.
• Submit your  fondest and funniest memories, photographs and stories of attending shows at the Emery. E-mail (jkaup@kauppender.com) or snail mail Emery Center Coporation, 100 E. Central Parkway, Cincinnati, OH  45202
  

Get involved. There is much work to be done before we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Emery January 2012

Phased Revitalization
The ECC believes the revival of the Emery Theatre can be accomplished in a two-phased restoration.  The first phase could open the orchestra and first balcony (1050 seats total) by the end of 2011, in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the hall in January 2012.  The second phase could open the second balcony for a total of 1500 seats at some future date.

Projected at just $3 million, Phase I could open the Emery’s doors at relatively low cost and capitalize on this currently underutilized resource.  The viability of the project is enhanced by potential income from the apartments, either through rent or condominium sales, which could yield $1 to 2 million in equity toward the theatre’s renovation.

History
Completed in 1911, the Emery Theatre/former Ohio Mechanic’s Institute-College of Applied Science (OMI-CAS) Building has a distinguished heritage, having been endowed by philanthropist Mary Emery and designed by architects Samuel Hannaford & Sons. The Emery Theatre has the highest quality acoustics and was compared to Carnegie Hall by the renowned conductor Leopold Stokowski. This nearly flawless concert hall was the home of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1912 to 1936.
 
Many Broadway stars and world-renowned performing artists have appeared on the Emery stage, including Russian ballet dancers Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova, actresses Bette Davis and Katherine Cornell, and composers John Philip Sousa and George Gershwin, who played his famous "Rhapsody in Blue" with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra here shortly after premiering it at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Recent Redevelopment
The Emery Theatre/former OMI-CAS Building came under the ownership of the University of Cincinnati in 1969.  When OMI-CAS moved to its new Edgecliff Campus in 1988, the building sat vacant, and the theatre was operated for a decade by the American Theatre Organ Society.  The Emery Center Corporation (ECC) was created in 1988 to promote the restoration and sustainable operation of the Emery Theatre. 

While restoration of the theatre was delayed, the rest of the complex was redeveloped in 1999-2001, with 59 units of market-rate housing, interior parking, and commercial office and retail space. The $9.7 million project included exterior renovation and interior stabilization of the theatre.  The complex is leased long-term (40 + 40 years) to the Emery Center Apartments LP (ECALP), and the ECC holds a sublease for the theatre.

Need
Cincinnati has pent-up demand for a mid-sized theater.  The Emery will have 1600 seats, as compared with 3400 in Music Hall, 2700 in the Aronoff, 2400 at the Taft, and 900 at CCM’s Corbett Auditorium.  Cincinnati needs a hall for mid-sized audiences to complement our other performing venues.  Cincinnatians drive to other cities in our region such as Louisville, Columbus, Indianapolis, Lexington, and Dayton to enjoy entertainers who skip Cincinnati for lack of a suitable venue for their touring shows.

Key characteristics

• Proscenium:  54 feet wide, 45 feet high at the top of the arch
• Stage depth:  35 feet deep, could be expanded to 60 feet
• Stage loft:      72 feet high
• Wing space:  15 feet wide (both sides)
• Rigging:         New counterweight system needed