A “4 sale or lease” sign has adorned the marquee of the Madison Theater in Covington, marking the latest in the theater’s troubled saga.
The former operator of the theater, Frank Hulefeld and his company Madison Theater Presents, abruptly announced earlier this summer that the theater was closing following the termination of his lease. The theater owner’s representative, however, quickly challenged this assertion.
Click here to learn more about the theater’s closure
Attorney Dave Kruer, who represents the theater’s owner, told CityBeat in June the venue was “not permanently closed” and that the goal was to have the venue “opened under a new operator within the next couple of weeks.” The theater’s owner is an LLC called ENC Properties, which is headed up by Lillian Esther Johnson, who lives in Taylor Mill.
Kruer spoke with CityBeat again this week and confirmed that the plan to reopen theater hadn’t changed; it’s just taking longer to find an ideal operator, he said. The building has not been listed with any brokers, in spite of the text on the marquee.
Kruer said the owner still plans to make a formal announcement about the theater’s future once things are worked out.
Much is still unknown about the circumstances of the closure, but there is some information that’s publicly available. Hulefeld’s announcement mentions the revocation of the venue’s insurance policy after a patron fell on one of the venue’s interior stairways.
A lawsuit against ENC Properties and the theater managers was filed in Kenton County Circuit Court on Oct. 28 by Florence resident Sheryl Zollars. According to the text of Zollars’ complaint, Zollars fell and sustained injuries on a stairway inside the theater leading to the stage early November 2024.
The suit alleges that the venue should have been aware of any hazards in the building, and that it should have warned patrons accordingly.
“The dangerous conditions in Defendants’ premises included, but were not limited to, the lack of a handrail and inadequate lighting for the stairway…,” reads the complaint. “The Defendants should have anticipated the incident on the stairway that caused Plaintiff’s injuries.”
The complaint goes on to allege the stairway’s conditions could have possibly violated building codes. The theater denied many of the allegations in its answer to the complaint.
Zollars’ lawyer, Scott Guenther, informed CityBeat that Zollars suffered a fracture in her right ankle and her upper tibia as a result of the fall. She spent nine days in the hospital and then two weeks in a rehab facility.
CityBeat will report more on the future of the Madison Theater as information becomes available.
This story has been updated.