One of the most historic buildings in St. Petersburg will be getting a major makeover.
The Palladium was built in 1925 by George A. Fuller Construction, the same company behind the Flatiron Building in New York City.
Originally built as a Christian Science church, the theater has become the core of St. Petersburg's performing arts and culture. And in 2007, it became part of St. Petersburg College.
But after all this time, it's in some need for some major renovations.
In October, the Pinellas County Commission approved moving the approximately $12 million restoration project forward. And as a result, the theater will be closed for around a year.
Speaking on "Florida Matters Live & Local," Paul Wilborn, the Palladium's executive director. spoke with host Matthew Peddie about the construction plan, as well as what visitors should expect when visiting after the renovation.
The interview below was edited for length and clarity.
Can you describe what The Palladium looks and feels like?
It's an incredible building. It's one of the most beautiful historic buildings in St. Petersburg. Not only built by a famous architect, but the company that built it in the '20s also built the Flatiron Building in New York. It's just a magnificent structure.
It was a church up until the mid-'90s, when the population dwindled. Some visionary folks in St. Pete saw the church and realized it had theater seats, so they bought it and made a theater out of it with the idea that we have an affordable community venue. A lot of our big venues are great, but they're not affordable for the community to do shows.
So that's who we are, and we've been doing it since 1998.
So you're bridging the space between amateur theater and the more expensive, high-priced tickets at other venues.
When you look, our big performing arts centers are for big rock and pop shows, roadshows, Broadway, all that stuff. That's who they need to be.
The community needs places where our "Nutcracker" just sold out four performances over the weekend, and every dancer there was from St. Pete and trained in St. Pete. It was a local production, that's kind of who we are.
We really support local performers; that's one of our biggest things. We really focus on being a home for the best talent we have in the area, musicians of all kinds — jazz, blues, spoken, acoustic, opera and chamber music.
Since it became a theater, there have been a lot of performances, concerts, speeches. Were there any notable events at the theater, or even before when it was a church, that people may be surprised to learn about?
We talk about being so local, but the show that really put us on the map happened in 2009.
This guy named Billy Joel wanted to do a college show, and they reached out to us. So we welcomed Billy Joel to our stage. At that point, we had made about a million dollars in improvements to the building.
His show sold out, and it really put us on the map. Our business just took off after that show. So we got to thank Billy for that.
ALSO READ: Pinellas County gives Palladium theater upgrade a green light
What are the limitations in the theater that you have now? What are you going to change when you undertake this renovation?
We've had an incredible run, but we're a church with a stage and some lights. When we started plugging in amplifiers and getting bands that are amplified doing rock and pop, the building started to bounce. It's just not as pleasant as it ought to be.
So much of this renovation is about seating, sightlines and acoustics. We're also replacing our 100-year-old seats with some modern seats that look like they belong in the building, but are much more comfortable and a little wider, and all have a great view of the stage. We're also dropping in an acoustic ceiling for our lighting positions.
We're working with an incredible team of architects and theatrical consultants. They're our dream team. It's going to be worth every penny of the $12 million.
Speaking of the sightlines, do you have to build up a bank on the seats? How do you do that?
We are doing that on the balcony, because we do have a problem there in our downstairs orchestra. The seats are all lined up right behind each other. They're not staggered, so we don't really need to change the rake. We need to rearrange the way the seats are put out there, and everyone's going to have a good view.
We're losing about 50 seats from where we are now, but we're going to have a perfectly sized hall with great views from all directions, and we don't have to raise our prices. We're still the most affordable place in town.
What about the Side Door Cabaret located underneath the main theater. Is that going to change?
We're going to do a little bit of work there. Most of our money is spent upstairs, but I do have some plans to improve that just a bit. That's still my favorite room.
We're closing for 12 months, so we don't know if that room is able to be used. We'll know more in the new year as this project gets closer to happening.
During the 12-month hiatus, what can you do to give people what they need and what they want in terms of artistic performances?
We've been working with major clients, like the "Nutcracker" and St. Pete Opera. This has been a three-year process, so everybody who uses the Palladium knows what's happening, and they're really supportive. They want a better theater.
Everybody's working on some plans, and we're going to do a few things off-site. At this point, I'm not sure if we'll have a nightclub. If we do, we'll be doing a lot of shows in the nightclub, and we've made a pledge to keep our full-time staff on board during this process.
You mentioned the money, about $12 million, with $2.5 million coming from the Pinellas County Tourism Development Tax. You also did a lot of fundraising. How did you get here?
It's really a mix. The city has stepped up: city of St. Pete, the state of Florida put in (about $1.8 million) over two sessions, (and) the county tourist board. We've also raised over $8 million privately. It's been a nice mix of public and private fundraising.
People appreciate what we're doing, and they want to support us.
This story was compiled from interviews conducted by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
