Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Dickson Street movie theater not happening
Project’s partners say rising costs too much to overcome
FAYETTEVILLE — A planned independent movie theater and event space will not go into the former Dickson Theater building.
Partners Greg Billingsley, Ross Cully and Brian Hill announced Friday after a four-year effort their 14,000-square-foot, fourscreen August & Louie project won’t happen.
The project went through a number of redesigns, Billingsley said. Cost estimates kept going up, sometimes even without a change in design. Material, plus contractors having to work out of a tight space on a small lot, went way over budget, he said.
The building at 227 W. Dickson St. sits between Dickson Street Liquor and Puritan Coffee and Beer. It was built in 1946.
Billingsley said he and his partners also served as the investors for August & Louie. Billingsley is a technology consultant, Ross is an owner of Harvest Group and Hill is a filmmaker.
“For any business, there’s a minimum viable size that it’s going to take,” Billingsley said. “We got down to that, to what we estimated that would be, and still it was over what the business could support.”
Originally set to open this year, the three-story theater was supposed to have a lobby, bar and kitchen area with two screens on the base level. A large theater was to take up the second and third levels, with a 20-foot screen on the roof. Marlon Blackwell Architects designed the building.
The trio bought the property in 2014 for $630,000, according to property records. A feasibility study early on revealed it would cost about the same to tear the old building down and build anew as it would to renovate the Dickson Theater space, Billingsley said.
Billingsley said he and his partners always felt encouraged, even when things didn’t go their way.
“My first thought is just the disappointment we’re bringing to the community,” he said. “That’s heartbreaking for this. We wanted to do this and we just couldn’t do it. That’s what made it the toughest decision.”
Chung Tan, economic development officer with the Chamber of Commerce, said it’s not unusual for business partners to start off with a dream but come up short. Technical expertise, sustainable funding and fulltime dedication are all vital factors, she said.
“If it’s an ambitious project, that means you better have the backup,” Tan said.
It’s better to realize a project isn’t viable early on than to go ahead and build and end up a white elephant — an empty building, in other words, Tan said. The chamber is always willing to help prospective business owners during any bumps in the road, she said.
Tan commended the trio for having a vision of contributing to the growing arts scene in the city. A building for TheatreSquared is under construction at Spring Street and West Avenue, and
“My first thought is just the disappointment we’re bringing to the community.” — Greg Billingsley, partner in theater project
a renovated Walton Arts Center opened in late 2016. The city also has plans to develop a cultural arts corridor downtown.
There’s still a chance someone else could carry out the August & Louie vision, or at least something close to it, Billingsley said. The old Dickson Theater building is still there and the property is for sale.
The building’s first occupant was Sine’s Body Shop, before a rotating cast of bars and nightclubs came in during the 1970s. Downtown Outdoor Outfitters was there until 2000, when Dickson Theater moved in, according to the book Once Upon Dickson.