Avalon Theatre

The Avalon Theatre, Marysville’s crown jewel located in the heart of downtown, originally opened on August 4, 1936, with Bobby Breen in “Let’s Sing Again.” It had a seating capacity of 510 with air conditioning, and was known as one of the finest, most modern theaters in Ohio at the time. It was closed in April 1958 due to dwindling attendance. On December 15, 1972, it reopened as the New Century Theatre and transformed into a triplex movie theater. It was later renamed Marysville Cinema, but it eventually closed for a final time in 2009. The historic venue sat vacant and continued to deteriorate until a group of community leaders joined together to purchase the building with future plans to bring the Avalon back to life.

In 2016, the City of Marysville started the strategic planning process for the Revitalization of the Historic Uptown District. The Theatre was specifically targeted as a key contributing project to the revitalization of the Historic District of Uptown. The completion of this project would help drive new business to the surrounding small businesses in Uptown, raise property values in the Historic District, and improve Marysville’s overall quality of life with close access to shows and classes focused on performing arts. The goal was to add a “Third Place” to the Uptown – with “First Place” being home and housing, “Second Place” being workplaces, a “Third Place” being a community gathering place, as in this circumstance, revolving around the performing arts. The performing arts are known to positively impact a wide variety of social issues, including health and well-being, inclusion, empowerment, community building, and activism.

Soon after we started the selective demolition for Phase I work, we discovered that additional shoring would be needed for the back of the structure due to a water-damaged roof truss. Unfortunately, while the team was reviewing the shoring design with the structural engineer, a severe thunderstorm with golf-ball size hail, caused a portion of the roof to collapse on June 4, 2020. Thankfully, there were no injuries and only minor property damage. In the middle of the night, Marker coordinated manpower to secure the site, clean up the damage, and install temporary bracing to the remaining walls. By the end of the day, the area was clean, and the site was secure. We immediately began coordinating the engineering efforts to stabilize the building while the design team initiated the redesign of the building.

Originally, the design was made to keep the roof and walls of the theater, and everything else would have been reconstructed within the shell of the existing structure. Although the partial roof collapse was a major blow to the project, the subsequent need to redesign opened possibilities for alternative design options that would be more beneficial for the Theatre. The project was redesigned in four months, and the new scope of the project included complete demolition of the existing building’s interior, rear exterior walls, and roof structure, new underground utilities, new roof structure, walls, slabs, etc., new restrooms, office and storage spaces, dressing rooms, mechanical spaces, and the theatre/stage. During the redesign, the Marker team provided estimating services to OHM, assisted in obtaining needed permits, and worked on repairing damages to adjacent buildings.

Once the team completed the design and permitting stage for the redesigned project, Marker remobilized the construction team and began foundation and masonry work, though now the team had to deal with decreasing temperatures and the upcoming winter to build the structure and get dried in. While the project now more closely resembled ‘new construction’ than a ‘renovation’, we were not without challenges. Logistically, the project was still being constructed on a small property with little space between adjacent structures. The building was fronted by Main Street, a primary thoroughfare for traffic through Marysville and a direct access road to the hospital. Maintaining positive relations with our immediate neighbors and the City as a whole was paramount to keeping on schedule. Coordinating the shutdown of Main Street so we could mobilize a crane to set structural steel required the buy-in of the City, the County, and the affected business owners. Getting everyone to agree to a date to shut down Main Street may have caused an eight day delay in the construction, but it was critically important to collaborate and maintain positive relationships with all stakeholders.

Phase Two work rolled seamlessly into the end of Phase 1 with no start/stop impacts. Our subcontractor team remained essentially intact between phases allowing the Project Superintendent to keep work moving. Phase 2 included all the final aesthetics to turn the building into a Theatre. Finishes included the front building glass facade, a new marquee with exterior lighting, entry ticket booth (reminiscent of the original Theatre ticket booth), a lobby bar for future beverage & snack service, furnishings for the lobby, audio/visual services for the Theatre (projector screen and projector), seating in the auditorium, installation of decorative lighting, sound and stage equipment, curtains, and a finished stag floor.

Several safety inspections were completed throughout different phases in the construction to allow the client to occupy portions of the building as it was available. Marker worked with the client to meet all necessary milestones for obtaining additional federal funding.

Due to limited funding and the timing of various funding sources (corporate donors, individual donors, grants, bank financing), Marker collaborated on a plan to break down the project into multiple phases – which is not the most efficient way to approach a project, but it was necessary to meet the client’s needs. Marker was also able to help finance the project by allowing for flexible payment terms throughout the project. Marker paid our subcontractors timely even when we were not receiving payments from the client. We were proud of our ability to do this and allow the project to move forward without all the funding in place.

This project required a true collaboration amongst stakeholders, and Marker led the way. We worked with the City of Marysville, the neighboring building owners, and the community to create a positive experience during difficult times (pandemic, partial roof collapse, struggles raising the funds, etc.). We all worked together for the common goal of creating a vibrant and welcoming community hub that would bring people together to enjoy the cultural arts, music, movies, and theater.

“Backing up and seeing the full impact of projects like this helps define Marker as a trusted community partner. I’m sure other construction managers would have taken this project on, but Marker’s values of empathy and collaboration were very strong on this project and were a very large contributor to its success. I think those values are on display as the project went through a global pandemic, suffered a major setback and redesign after the rear truss failure, and dealt with many disconnected stakeholders in a non-profit, all while maintaining close to the same overall project budget for the client. I think those points alone are pretty incredible. I think if another construction manager would have been doing the project, it would have never made it past the truss failure, and we’d be looking at a gravel lot in Uptown Marysville today.”

Tim Schacht
Designer + Board Member