Bellevue Theatre Renovation Nears Completion

by Charles McGuigan 06.2024

There are alternatives to the Lego School of Design rectangles that are rapidly destroying the singular skyline of Richmond with an aesthetic that has all the appeal of unending corn rows of khrushchevkas (Consider what’s happening in Scott’s Addition). What’s more, these alternatives not only supply the necessary living quarters for our ever-expanding population, they also preserve the history and architectural diversity of the city. In other words, they preserve the very soul of Richmond.

Back in 2023, Ben Admanson and Alex Griffith purchased, for $300,00, the old Bellevue Theatre on MacArthur Avenue. Architect for the project is Bruce Shirley, a resident of  Bellevue. Their plans for its restoration were extremely ambitious. While preserving the architectural features of this unique Art Decco movie house—an essay in stripped-down classicism—they were going to add upscale living space on all three floors of the building, with extensive commercial space on the first floor. 

The building, long neglected by its former owners, was a shambles in a state of utter disrepair. As Ben, owner of Corinthian Construction, said at the time:  “The ceiling’s kind of falling in. Every time you walk in, there’s another huge chunk of plaster on the floor.  And it’s kind of a disaster of wet moldiness.”

Over a year later, and well over the original restoration budget of $1.2 million, there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel. “We’re coming along generally meeting our schedule,” said Ben during an interview in early June. “We should have it mostly wrapped up by September.” By that time the apartments should be ready for leasing. “We’re finishing insulation today, and we’ll be hanging sheet rock upstairs next week,” he said.

All the systems have been upgraded. Final inspections from the city came during the first week of June, and Dominion was planning to bring new service to the building by mid-June.  “Everything’s coming together,” Ben said. 

When it’s all done and said, there will be three commercial spaces on the first floor, and a total of ten apartments, nine of which will be on the second and third floors. And these are fairly substantial apartments—four two-bedrooms and six one-bedrooms—ranging in size from 750 to 1200 square feet. As Ben had said in an earlier interview, “They’re going to be for more of a mature audience, not the micro one-bedrooms you see in Scott’s Addition.” 

When asked what the apartments will rent for, Ben said, “We haven’t nailed that down yet.
We don’t have a lot of great comps in the neighborhood, but we’re excited to test the market to see what it will bear.”

At this point, it looks as if at least one retailer will take up occupancy in the commercial rentals on the first floor of the old Bellevue Theatre, but Ben did not reveal the name of the business. Incidentally, those spaces are renting for $25 a square foot. Other commercial space on MacArthur Avenue currently rents for $14 a square foot.

Within the next month, the focus will center on the exterior elevation facing MacArthur Avenue. “We’ll start to work on the marquee and the front patio,” said Ben. “The doors on the front will be replaced with those like a typical storefront entry system.”

A few months ago, Ben and his business partner also purchased the property right next door to the old theatre. The building there has been home to Zorba’s Pizza Express for decades.  “They’ve been there for a long time, and so if they want to stay they can,” Ben said. “For now they’re going to stay, and we’ll see how long they want to stay.”

Ben indicated that he and his partner are planning to purchase yet another commercial space on MacArthur Avenue, though he declined to name that business. “We’ve got more things coming to the neighborhood,” he said. 

Ben then talked a bit about preserving structures and re-purposing them. “You get a much more interesting unit with more character,” he said. “I’ve built a lot of new construction and they’re fine, but they don’t have that feel that a renovated building has.”

The Bellevue has a long and storied past. It opened with the screening of “Mountain Music” in the late summer of 1937 when MacArthur Avenue was still called Rappahannock Avenue. The architect was Henry Carl Messerschmidt, who also designed the Lee Theater on West Grace Street in the Fan District.

As the story goes, Shirley MacLaine and her younger brother Warren Beatty saw their first motion picture at The Bellevue, which was just a couple short blocks from their American Foursquare home in the 3900 block of Fauquier Avenue. After watching that first movie there, the young Shirley MacLaine supposedly decided to become an actress. 

For a couple decades it was a popular neighborhood movie theater, and then in the late 1950s it became home to another form of entertainment altogether. For a number of years, Virginia’s version of the Grand Ole Opry was broadcast live from The Bellevue. After Sunshine Sue retired as host of the Old Dominion Barn Dance in 1957, the show was renamed the New Dominion Barn Dance and its home was moved from the Lyric Theater in downtown Richmond to The Bellevue in the Northside. Among those who performed on its stage were Buck Owens, Porter Wagner, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Jr., Johnny Cash, June Carter, and a very young Willie Nelson.

The Bellevue Theatre closed in 1965, and a year later, at a cost of a little over $26,000, Samis Grotto purchased the old theatre.