By Michael Morain

After a decade of stops and starts, the historic Ingersoll Theatre is preparing for its next act. The current owners plan to reopen it around Nov. 15 as a dinner theater and hot spot for concerts, comedy and more.

In the summer of 2022, local developer Connor Delaney’s holding company Delaney Enterprises bought the property for $550,000 from its longtime owners, the Lee family. Soon after, Delaney’s real estate brokerage firm White Oak Realty teamed up with VenuWorks, the Ames-based venue management company, to form the Ingersoll Theatre LLC and envision a new plan for the space.

“We’ll open the Ingersoll Theatre to a new era of fun and entertainment with sort of a sophisticated feel to it,” VenuWorks CEO Steve Peters said during a press conference this morning. “I keep telling our team that [the space] ought to be such that if you saw Frank Sinatra walk across the room, you wouldn’t think that was unusual, because it’s that kind of room.”

VenuWorks manages more than 50 venues nationwide, including the Adler Theatre in Davenport, the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids, and Iowa State University’s Stephens Auditorium in Ames. Peters also co-owns the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre in Minnesota, which has hosted more than 12 million patrons since it opened 50 years ago.

He plans to announce the Ingersoll Theatre’s first few acts within the next two months and schedule the grand opening in time for the holidays at the end of the year.

In the meantime, the renovation team led by DEV Partners, Sequel Architecture and Interiors, and Estes Construction, will be working to give new life to the space. The exterior requires extensive repairs, and the 7,000-square-foot interior is an empty shell, with only a few art deco hints of its original charm. The team plans to restore or replace the original marquee, update the lobby, renovate the auditorium to accommodate 225 patrons at tables, and build a new 800-square-foot kitchen.

Project leaders estimate the project will cost $5 million, with about $1.5 million in state and federal tax credits for historic preservation. “We offered to keep the raccoon, if we could get wildlife preserve credits, too,” Peters joked.

The alley on the building’s west side may become a walk of fame for sponsors or other notable names, including Ebenezer Ingersoll, one of the city’s founders, Peters said.

The prominent local entrepreneur Abraham Harry “A.H.” Blank built the Ingersoll Theatre in 1939, along with several others around town. He hired the same architects with Wetherell & Harrison to design the Varsity Cinema (1207 25th St.), Hiland Theatre (423 Euclid Ave.) and Forest Theatre (1343 13th St.), which now houses Creative Visions.

“These small neighborhood theaters were all over the place,” said historic consultant Alexa McDowell, who helped the development team apply for historic tax credits. She noted that many theaters were built downtown, too, but they’re all gone. “They were created in a moment in time, like ballrooms, but then there was a shift in what people were interested in.”

The Ingersoll Theatre became a venue for live theater in the 1970s and operated as the Ingersoll Dinner Theater from 1979 through 2004. It became an after-hours club in 2004, reopened as a Cuban restaurant in 2010, and housed a handful of short-lived night clubs in the years that followed.

Since his company purchased the building three years ago, Delaney has heard from many people who remember going to see a show in its heyday — just like he did. He recalled going to see plays with his grandmother, and once, they were the only two in the audience for “Peter Pan.” They split a small pizza and a cherry Coke.

His grandmother died a few years ago, but “she’d be so pumped” to see the new project, he said. “It’s rewarding to take on a challenge like this.”