Less than 24 hours after news broke that Des Moines’ historic Varsity Cinema was reopening on Dec. 15, nearly all of the tickets for the first movie had been sold. 

“Everyone has a Varsity story,” said Larry James Jr., a commercial real estate attorney and board member of the Des Moines Film Society, which owns the theater. “It’s an institution. … It really could be called the soul of the Drake neighborhood.”

The reopening of the Varsity Cinema, located at 1207 25th St., comes nearly four years after its previous owner closed its doors.

The nonprofit Des Moines Film Society bought the theater property in fall 2020, and in early 2021 it launched a fundraising campaign to renovate the 106-year-old building.

The nearly $5 million renovation includes an expanded lobby, upgraded concessions with a full bar, and the addition of an elevator and second-level auditorium. The inside and outside of the building have been refurbished, a new sound system installed, and new screens added to the auditoriums.

“We wanted to preserve the historic nature of the theater but also make some improvements,” said Ben Godar, the group’s executive director. “We believe we achieved our goals.”

History of Varsity property

The Varsity Cinema, located just east of Drake University’s campus, is described as the Des Moines area’s oldest single-screen, independently owned movie house. 

Over the years, the theater avoided being purchased by movie chains or being razed to make way for new, more modern structures.  

“All the movie theaters in downtown Des Moines got knocked down,” Godar said. “There are remnants of some of the neighborhood theaters, but [the Varsity] was the last operating one. It’s important to [Des Moines Film] that it continues operating as a movie theater.”  

The building in which the theater is located was constructed in phases, with the first section built around 1908, according to historians. During its first 15 years or so, the building housed auto dealerships, an auto repair shop and other vehicle-related businesses.

Around 1923, the building was converted to a Coca-Cola bottling facility. In 1938, a local movie theater operator purchased the property and converted the structure to a movie house called the Varsity Theater.

In 1954, Bev Mahon and Robert Fridley bought the Varsity; 21 years later, Mahon became the theater’s sole owner. After Mahon’s death in 2009, his daughter Denise Mahon operated the theater. She closed it on Dec. 31, 2018.   

Des Moines Film purchased the property in fall 2020. One of the first things the group did was change the theater’s name to Varsity Cinema.  

The group “is continuing the tradition that the Mahons started in terms of bringing quality films and cinema to Des Moines,” said James, whose law office is in the Drake neighborhood. 

The Varsity’s restoration

When members of Des Moines Film Society began talking about restoring the Varsity, they realized few members had experience in historic renovations, Godar said. People with backgrounds in development and finance were recruited to join the board, he said. 

Renovation plans were prepared and details were put in place for a fundraising campaign.

However, the pandemic hit just as the group was preparing to launch the campaign and share restoration plans. 

“We had everything in place to start the campaign; all we had to do was flip a switch to go live,” Godar said. Instead “we pressed pause for about a year. … By the time we recircled the wagons and reassessed the finances, we were told the project was going to cost about $1 million more than we originally planned.”

“That was a gut-check moment,” he said.

The group made changes to the renovation plan, including retaining the rectangular-shaped marquee on the front of the building. Plans originally had called for replacing it with a metal triangle-shaped marquee. Metal was one of the materials that experienced substantial price increases during the pandemic, Godar said.

While a triangular-shaped marquee would have matched one that was attached to the building in 1938, the cost wasn’t worth it, Godar said.

“We wanted to save the money and make sure we could offer the programming we had planned and make the building accessible,” he said.  

Some historic features of the building were uncovered during the renovation. The theater’s terrazzo floor in the lobby showed when the carpet was removed. Art deco-style door frames were revealed when drywall was removed from the entryways into the main theater. On the building’s exterior, blue-glazed brick striping was uncovered when paint was removed.

“We have been able to keep all of the things that are great about [the Varsity] and make improvements to some things that weren’t so great like the restrooms and the lack of accessibility,” James said.

The current renovation, though, won’t be fully complete when the first movie – “Singin’ in the Rain” – is shown on Dec. 15. Glass that will encase a stairway to the second floor hasn’t yet arrived and letters that spell out “Varsity Cinema” planned for above the marquee also are in transit.

Other Drake neighborhood improvements

The Varsity Cinema’s reopening coincides with other improvements underway or planned in the Drake neighborhood.

A new three-story mixed-use building with apartments and a grocery store is planned at 2211 University Ave. where a convenience store and fuel pumps had been located. Construction is expected to begin soon on the first phase of a mixed-use project that will include 116 apartment units, office space and street-level commercial. The $22 million project is planned at 25th Street and Carpenter Avenue, around the corner from the Varsity Cinema. 

Construction is underway on a $19.5 million, 4,000-seat stadium that will be shared by Drake and the Des Moines school district. The stadium, at 2405 Forest Ave., is expected to be completed in fall 2023. Also underway is a $7 million renovation of a facility on the Drake University campus that will house the Meals on Wheels headquarters.

Two years ago, a 124-room Home2 Suites by Hilton opened at 2650 University Ave. The development by Nelson Construction & Development includes street-level commercial space. Last year, the Des Moines-based firm also completed a mixed-use project at 26th Street and University Avenue. The four-story building includes apartments and commercial space.

“I think when people who are unfamiliar with what’s going on in the Drake neighborhood go to the Varsity, they are going to be surprised at all the activity that is going on,” James said. 

The reopening of the movie house “is just building on all of the energy that’s already occurring here,” he said. ν

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‘Everyone has a Varsity story’

In an interview with Larry James Jr. about the reopening of the Varsity Cinema, the commercial real estate lawyer said that “Everyone has a Varsity story. … They saw a movie there. They had a first date there. They met their spouse there. … There’s all kinds of stories that are shared.”

The comment prompted us to ask James, a Des Moines Film Society board member, about his Varsity story.

Turns out, James’ uncle – Dick Glenn – managed the Varsity for several years in the 1970s.

Glenn “was active in the theater business in Des Moines,” James said. “As a younger man, he managed the Varsity and had his office on the second floor. My cousins, who are older than me, remember going to the Varsity when they were younger, running around in the theater and cleaning up after the movies.”

Glenn’s wife, Joan, also worked there, James said. Another uncle distributed flyers about the theater.

“Everyone has a story like that,” James said.

‘Everyone has a Varsity story’

In an interview with Larry James Jr. about the reopening of the Varsity Cinema, the commercial real estate lawyer said that “Everyone has a Varsity story. … They saw a movie there. They had a first date there. They met their spouse there. … There’s all kinds of stories that are shared.”

The comment prompted us to ask James, a Des Moines Film Society board member, about his Varsity story.

Turns out, James’ uncle – Dick Glenn – managed the Varsity for several years in the 1970s.

Glenn “was active in the theater business in Des Moines,” James said. “As a younger man, he managed the Varsity and had his office on the second floor. My cousins, who are older than me, remember going to the Varsity when they were younger, running around in the theater and cleaning up after the movies.”

Glenn’s wife, Joan, also worked there, James said. Another uncle distributed flyers about the theater.

“Everyone has a story like that,” James said.

– Kathy A. Bolten