As Aurora considers more federal relief funds for Paramount, theater announces it will stage Disney’s ‘Frozen’ next holiday season

The Aurora City Council is considering $4.5 million in federal pandemic relief funds for the Aurora Civic Center Authority.

The money would go toward operations at the Paramount Theatre, with some going toward startup costs for a new immersive theater in downtown Aurora that was first discussed in 2019.

City and Civic Center Authority officials said the money would allow the Paramount to continue its current programming, as well as expanding.

That expansion will include two regional premieres in the next Broadway Series at the Paramount to be announced later this month. Part of that announcement is that the theater will produce the regional premiere of Disney’s “Frozen” as its holiday offering in 2024.

The Paramount Theatre brings about 500,000 people to downtown Aurora each year. Its current subscription base of 37,000 makes it the largest subscription-based theater in the country.

That base was as high as 41,000 before the pandemic, but dropped as far as 29,000 after the coronavirus pandemic hit. Tim Rater, Civic Center Authority president and CEO, said the theater has worked to build the base back up, and said while promotion is important, there is one main thing that drives theater attendance more than anything else.

“The single biggest thing is to put on shows people want to see,” he said. “We’re looking at two regional premieres. We’re doing everything we can to promote, but what we pick is the key.”

In many ways, Rater said the Paramount is “bucking the trend” of what’s going on around the country.

The largest subscription-based theater in the country before the pandemic was the Walnut Street Theater in Pennsylvania, with a base of 54,000 subscribers before the pandemic. They are down to 19,000, Rater said.

Mayor Richard Irvin said it’s “because of the partnership” between the city and the Civic Center Authority “that we’re not failing, and will continue to grow.”

That partnership is what prompted the City Council in late 2022 to appropriate $5.5 million to the Civic Center Authority so the Paramount could cover operational costs to get fully reopened. The $4.5 million being considered now is the second part of that, said Alex Alexandrou, the city’s chief management officer.

The monetary infusions are considered short-term solutions; the long-term solution is a new spending plan looking forward that is being developed by city and Civic Center Authority officials. Both Alexandrou and Rater said that will be brought before the council by March.

“We’re not just plugging in $4.5 million without a lot of work,” Alexandrou said.

The money is coming from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. City officials said the money was passed by the U.S. Congress precisely to help restaurants and theaters come back from the pandemic.

“This is exactly what ARPA was created for, to deal with COVID,” Irvin said.

“There was a reason the federal government created ARPA,” said Ald. Edward Bugg, 9th Ward. “This is it.”

Rater said the alternative short-term solution would be to consider closing the Copley Theater and its Bold Series, or closing the Paramount School of the Arts, or cutting shows at the Paramount or at RiverEdge Park.

Irvin said when the Paramount went dark during COVID, the consumptive taxes from businesses downtown went down, and when the Paramount reopened, they went back up.

“Cutting these things means cutting the number of people coming downtown,” he said.

Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, said when entertainment venues fail, “the economic impact, sometimes you can’t get that back.”

“It is the driving force,” he said. “I don’t know if anything is more important.”

Certainly part of the long-term solution is more revenue from things like the immersive theater, which was first discussed in 2019. It would be a 99-seat, 6,000-square-foot theater in the first floor suite in the Stolp Island parking garage. If the $4.5 million is approved, some $2.3 million of it would go toward building out the space and opening that theater.

Rater said the Civic Center Authority would plan to open it by this summer with the show “Million Dollar Quartet,” which played successfully for seven years at the Apollo Theater in Chicago.

The immersive theater would be a theater that is almost more like a club, with the audience somewhat immersed among the performers.

While the ARPA money would go toward the buildout, ongoing costs for the immersive theater will be covered by Verano Holdings Corp., parent company of Zen Leaf cannabis dispensaries. One of its dispensaries is in Aurora. Zen Leaf and the Civic Center Authority have completed a sponsorship deal, city officials said.

The theater would be the fourth live performance space downtown run by the Civic Center Authority, joining the Paramount, the Copley Theater and RiverEdge Park. There is also an independent non-profit community theater, the Riverfront Playhouse, which does live theater downtown, and The Venue, a live music facility run by the Fox Valley Music Foundation.

“When built out, there will be more than 1,000 performances a year (downtown),” Alexandrou said. “It’s going to continue to drive patrons.”

slord@tribpub.com