Plight Of The Princess: Efforts Continue To Save Oxford Theater

BY JULIA ARWINE
Miami University journalism student

Since its marquee went dark in 2014, The Princess Theater in uptown Oxford has sat unused and empty despite all efforts to revive it.

But Oxford residents aren’t ready to close the final curtain on the former uptown movie house yet.

Earlier this month, passionate Oxford citizens and interested city officials gathered to brainstorm how to bring The Princess back.

The Princess’ end began on Green Beer Day in March of 2014 when a fire started in the theater after, ironically, an ice machine in the concession area overheated. Although the fire was quickly put out and the building suffered no structural damage, The Princess was forced to close its doors.

In September of that year, the owner of the building, Lindsey Meyers, was certain that the theater would be reopened by fall of 2016, but various obstacles prevented that from happening.

The original building was demolished and rebuilt in 2015, changing the historic face of the building. According to the 2015 proposal to the Oxford Historic and Architectural Preservation Committee, the approved plan of the rebuild said, “The [original] buildings will be completely removed. The old marquee will be saved and rebuilt on to the new building. The new building will only be three stories tall.”

Marquee missing

Due to these changes, the building at the corner of High and Beech streets is now unrecognizable as its former self. The marquee is still missing, and since the rebuild the first floor has sat empty and unfurnished, nothing there but gravel and concrete. There is no plumbing, and only minimal heating.

According to Alan Kyger, economic development director of Oxford, the company that owns the building— Rodbro, Myers, Rodbro, Wood LLC— would like to put a theater in the empty space. Additionally, Kyger reports that Miami alum Dan Heilbrunn, owner of the Esquireand Danbarry theaters in Cincinnati, has expressed interest in operating The Princess and showing first-run movies there.
Neither party, however, is willing to pay for the refurbishment.

“That’s where the current hang-up is,” Kyger said. “There’s a 'Catch 22' in this project.”

In a meeting with a student group last month, Oxford City Manager Doug Elliott estimated that it would take about $1 million to get The Princess up and running again. Kyger put the price close to that at $800,000 to $900,000.

The city has a revolving fund for local businesses in which startups use the money to begin their businesses, then pay it back to keep the fund going. Elliott said the city would be able to contribute about $350,000 toward rebuilding The Princess with revolving fund dollars.

Funding gap

When interested parties met May 1 they focused on how to make the difference between total cost and what the city could provide.

Oxford City Council member David Prytherch, a Miami University associate geography professor who has long been active in the efforts to restore The Princess and runs the theater’s Facebook page with 3,500 followers, organized the meeting. Kyger attended, along with Miami’s outgoing student body president Maggie Callaghan; Richard Campbell, chair of the Department of Media, Journalism & Film; and other locals dedicated to the arts.

Attendees discussed different ideas about how to revive the Princess, such as making the theater community-owned through a nonprofit organization. This way, the community could launch a capital campaign to raise the money for the expensive one-time renovation.

Those involved with Miami had several ideas about how to get the university to collaborate. Past efforts to do so have failed, Kyger explained, because Miami cannot invest in a private business unless there is an educational aspect to it.

Miami and Princess

Campbell spoke about several ways to integrate the classroom into the theater. The Farmer School of Business and the entrepreneurship program, he said, could involve students in running the theater. The individual showrooms could even be used as classrooms, he suggested, for film screenings and large lectures in need of a projector. Another option is to reach out to alumni with deep pockets and a soft spot for The Princess—
perhaps Miami mergers who went on dates there, Campbell suggested.

Kyger suggested that student-produced films could be shown in the theater for the whole community to see.
Both expressed the belief that the community suffers from not having a movie theater.

“It’s a piece of the town that’s missing,” Kyger said, pointing out that since its closing, younger
teens in Oxford have few places to socialize safely without their parents around.

Campbell noted the role the theater could have in bringing students and residents closer together.
“The theater would be one piece of a plan to integrate the town, particularly on weekends,” he
said. “We need more things for [students who don’t drink] to do.”

Cheers for Princess

The issue is clearly one that Miami students care about and, as such, a notable part of Maggie Callaghan’s
platform as student body president. Last semester, when The Miami Student hosted a City Council debate on campus, the audience burst into applause and cheers when the Princess was mentioned.

Campbell believes that a student group dedicated to pressing the issue would prompt the university to take action, and that a survey conducted by Associated Student Government to gauge student interest in a theater would provide useful evidence for the cause.

Going forward, collaboration between the community, the owners of the building, the theater operator out of Cincinnati and the university is needed, according to Prytherch.

“We’re trying to encourage everyone to stay at the table and find a deal that will work for the various parties,” he said. “If it were easy, the theater would be back already... it’s going to take partnership.”

Prytherch also said that a meeting between those parties would take place sometime midsummer of this year. Campbell, who leave his position as MJF chair this summer, wants to dedicate more of his time to making progress on the problem, and hopes to meet with university president Greg Crawford about it soon.

However, the clock is ticking, and if real progress isn’t made soon it may mean curtains for The Princess. The building’s owners can’t afford to have an empty space there forever. They may very well lease it for some other purpose if another business owner makes an offer they can’t refuse. This could happen at any time, and if plans for The Princess aren’t made soon, it may very well be an inevitability.

“If a deal can’t come together,” Prytherch said. “We’ll have to let it go.”

Top photo: The ground floor of the building that had been home to The Princess Theater sits empty. -- Photo by Julie Arwine