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Address: 1201 Linn St., West End
Owner: Casino Theater Cincinnati LLC
Value: $275,000
Year Built: 1908
Comments: Most people know the Regal Theater as a movie theater, but it also hosted live music acts such as Lionel Hampton. Lately it’s been hosting only pigeons.
The marquee is broken, the metal dome is crusty and the doors have been shut for years.
The theater is a holdout in the West End, which might be the city’s fastest-changing neighborhood. Incomes have increased an average of 150 percent per family and 190 percent per household since the mid-1990s. That’s mostly because of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Hope VI project, converting about 2,200 public housing units in the old Lincoln Court and Laurel Homes projects into about 250 homes for sale and 850 rental units, both of which are evenly divided between market rate and income-restricted units.
Nearby Citirama developments in 1997 and 2000 also boosted average incomes.
In light of all this, the University of Cincinnati began studying the neighborhood two years ago. Larry Harris, senior city planner for the city of Cincinnati, has been working on the second part of a West End community plan since January. He hopes to have the plan in front of city council for approval in two months.
The president of the company that owns the property is Dixon V. Edwards, a former defensive player for the Minnesota Vikings who grew up in Cincinnati. Edwards, who graduated from Aiken High School, now lives in Texas. He bought the theater in June 2000 for $110,000, according to the Hamilton County Auditor’s Office.
Harris says he hasn’t talked to Edwards. Attempts by CityBeat to reach Edwards were not successful.
“I would love to talk with him and find out what he wants to do so we can incorporate that into the wording of the plan,” Harris says.
The city would like to see the building renovated, perhaps for a performing arts space, club or restaurant, according to Harris.
BLIGHT OF THE WEEK is an effort to highlight the problem of abandoned buildings — and who’s responsible for them.
This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2002.
