$9.2M GoFundMe campaign seeks to turn the Princess Theatre into an arts hub

A push is underway to convert Edmonton's Princess Theatre into a performing arts venue. CTV News Edmonton's Connor Hogg has the details.

An Edmonton man is hoping to raise enough money to buy the Princess Theatre to turn it into a community hub for the arts.

The landmark theatre on Whyte Avenue has been around for more than 110 years but closed in 2022.

The owners of the theatre are selling it and have had multiple offers, including from out-of-country buyers, but said they will only sell the building to the right buyer.

In November, a real-estate associate working with the owners, Ian Fletcher, told CTV News Edmonton that the goal is to have the building remain a part of the arts community and not become a retail space, restaurant, bar or something of that sort.

• Princess Theatre owners hope to sell 110-year-old building to the right buyers

“We’ve turned those offers down because we’re of the firm belief that (this) building is … one of (a) kind. It holds particular significance in not only the Strathcona area but in the city of Edmonton,” said TJ Brar, the owners' son.

While the Princess Theatre is known for being a movie theatre, one Edmontonian is looking to turn it into a different sort of space while keeping its spirit.

“Given the state of the building right now, I don’t foresee the main theatre being feasible for projecting movies on the screen or it being fiscally viable,” said prospective buyer David Stupnikoff

“We want to bring in a stage and set it up for live performances, for small musicals, performances, independent artists, stand-up comedians, and then hopefully have it available for the Fringe Festival and open it up again.

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“If there’s a Grade 2 class that needs a stage, they can have the main stage here, and even if it’s only the first four rows of parents, that’d be an adorable concert, and they’d have a venue without charging them any money.”

The Edmonton Fringe Festival began in the basement of the Princess Theatre, according to the festival’s executive director, Megan Dart.

“To see it sit vacant for as long as it has is a bit hard on our creative hearts,” Dart said. “It’s such a beautiful space, it’s meant so much to the community, and we would love to see that venue be brought back to life.”

One of the barriers buyers face with the theatre is not just the cost of the building, but the cost to repair and upgrade it.

“The reality is it costs more to fix the building than it does to buy it,” said Stupnikoff.

“By running the numbers and running through it for the last eight months, and working with contractors and architects, we came to a number that is the feasible price from start to finish, to open this building, to have it run for another 100 years and be safe and up to code for the City of Edmonton.”

That number is $9.2 million, the goal of the GoFundMe Stupnikoff started to raise funds to buy and repair the theatre.

“It’s not going to be able to be exactly what it once was, but we want to stay pretty close to its original operations and settings and rooms to be able to try to provide tours in the future, so people can see the history of what was there before and how we’ve altered it to make it viable for the settings we want to do,” he said.

If successful, the theatre would be made fully accessible, with the hope to partner with other ventures, including the High Level Bridge street trolley.

The work on the theatre would be estimated to take 18 months.

The GoFundMe has been up since Feb. 25 and raised just over $4,300 as of Thursday.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg