by BRIAN NADIG A public hearing on the proposed Weber Spur Trail in the Mayfair-Sauganash area will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, in the Student read story
Renovation plans for Portage Theater include expanded washrooms, new bar
by BRIAN NADIG
Phase one renovation plans for the shuttered Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave., include construction of a bar in a neighboring storefront and the expansion of the theater’s bathrooms.
“We want to be able to accommodate them while they are waiting to get into the (theater),” the theater’s new operator and owner, Chris Bauman, said of the planned bar.
Bauman said that phase one improvements could take nine to 12 months and cost as much as $3 million, but he expects the Portage to be reopened within a year.
Bauman, who helped manage the theater about a decade ago, added that it’s important for the Portage to have an array of revenue streams, including movie, concert ticket, and alcohol sales, to help guarantee its economic stability.
Other theaters in the Chicago area have been successful by opening related businesses, such as a bar, a restaurant or gift shop, next to the theater, while the theater still serves as an economic engine that helps bring customers to other existing stores and eateries, Bauman said.
“Theaters are an economic driver,” Bauman said, adding that each dollar spent on a ticket generates $12 in economic activity in the surrounding community.
Under the plans, the back portion of the adjacent storefront, which is part of the theater building, will be used to more than double the number of bathroom stalls, with a total of 18 and one family restroom planned, Bauman said.
Currently the theater has one women’s restroom, with four stalls, and one men’s restroom, with two stalls and two urinals, according to Bauman. “That’s how it’s been for 106 years,” he said.
The front portion of that storefront will be the bar, Bauman said.
The existing seating inside the auditorium is in poor condition, and plans call for new removable and adjustable seating to be brought in, Bauman said.
The capacity will be 1,499 people, and the new flexible seating system will allow for a greater variety of entertainment, Bauman said. He cited boxing matches, with seating positioned around the ring, as one possibility.
Other renovations include installing chandeliers where they once hung and the build-out of a “green room” near the stage. A space where entertainers and their families and friends can relax before, during and after shows is needed to help compete with other venues, Bauman said.
The theater has had little or no upkeep since it closed it 2018, and that delayed maintenance adds to the cost of getting the Portage, which has been designated a Chicago landmark building, reopened, Bauman said.
However, he said, the theater’s interior was operating with no building code violations eight years ago at the time it is closed, and many of the required improvements are cosmetic. “It’s about enhancing (the Portage), not redoing it.”
In 2024 the city filed a lawsuit against the theater’s previous owner over safety concerns about the marquee. The lawsuit remains unsettled, but Bauman said plans are in place to repair the marquee, but that it is structurally sound. The current marquee is not the original one and is believed to have been installed at least 60 years ago.
Future renovation phases could include changes to the projection room and the installation of private club suites, along with the eventually reopening of the theater’s second-floor ballroom space, which in 1941 housed the offices of the 38th Ward Republicans, Bauman said.
“The buildings department is working with us, (as is) the alderman’s office … and landmarks,” Bauman said. “Everybody is working with us … positive energy.”
Redevelopment and preservation grants will be sought from the city and other sources, and a nonprofit foundation has been established to help raise funds for the theater, but the theater’s ownership and investors are ready to have the renovations start, Bauman said.
The funds raised by the Portage Theater Foundation will help ensure the theater’s longevity and ability to host community programming, Bauman said.
He said that he envisions about half of the programming at the Portage to be community-oriented, such as the premieres of locally produced films, and the other half to include larger scale concerts and other productions.
Donations can be made at www.portagetheaterfoundation.org
Options include purchasing a custom-engraved “legacy tile” that will be installed on the ticket booth or above the theater’s doors.
Also available is purchasing a message that will be displaced on the theater’s marquee.
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