JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Despite pushback from the community when the sale was announced, the new owner of the building that houses Sun-Ray Cinema says the decades-old theater’s lease has expired and won’t be renewed.
Union South Partners, a Southeast developer of adaptive reuse projects, has closed on the purchase of the historic Five Points Theater building on Park Street.
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The company said it plans a $2 million renovation and upgrade project in the coming months to “begin a new chapter” in the nearly 100-year history of the four-story, approximately 35,000-square-foot building.
“What attracted us to Jacksonville and specifically to Riverside and Five Points is that it offers a genuine, authentic neighborhood experience with a thriving, live-work-play destination,” said Jay Weaver, a founding partner of Union South Partners. “The Five Points Theater building has played an iconic role in helping shape this neighborhood during the past century, and we intend to keep its historic roots as an entertainment and retail complex intact.”
The company said the current tenants with active leases will be allowed to finish out those lease agreements, but said that the lease for Sun-Ray has expired.
Sun-Ray Cinema has operated a two-screen movie theater in the historic building since 2011.
Community members feared Sun-Rays’ lease would not be renewed and voiced their concerns to Jacksonville’s City Council, saying that the theater is “vital to our city’s culture.”
The building’s previous owner, Jack Shad, announced he had found a buyer for the property and a social media post warned that the theater was not offered a new lease. The post sparked an uproar from the community.
The new ownership said it does plan to preserve “the theater’s historic fabric” and keep many of the building’s existing elements intact. It says it wants the theater to remain an entertainment destination in Five Points.
The historic building, designed by architect Roy Benjamin, was built in 1927 and opened as the Riverside Theatre, which was the first theater in Jacksonville to screen films with sound, also known as “talkies,” while enabling it to accommodate live theater performances.
The theater opened and closed a few times during the 1930s and 1940s before being remodeled in 1949 and reopening under the name that remains today, the Five Points Theater building.
The theater closed in the 1970s due to the growth of suburban, multi-screen cinemas, and the space later functioned as a live acting theater run by the River City Playhouse before transitioning in 1991 into Club5, which offered live music performances.
The Shad family acquired the building in 2004 and invested $5 million in renovations, restoring the building to its original façade and securing a “City of Jacksonville Landmark” designation for the iconic structure.
“Our goal is to build upon and continue what they began 20 years ago in ways that reflect and honor the building’s historical uses around entertainment,” Weaver said.