Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Queen's new reign lifts hopes for Wilmington revitalization

[caption id="attachment_9102" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Final preparations continue for the Queen Theater's April 1 reopening. "]https://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/queen_ren_1-300x200.jpg[/caption]

After more than a half-century of darkness, it’s time to light up the Queen.

When the switch is flipped and World Café Live at the Queen opens on April 1, Wilmington will be getting far more than a new live entertainment and dining venue, say its supporters.

The renovation of the Queen Theater, built in 1915, is “a metaphor for the revitalization of Market Street,” said Jerry duPhily, longtime arts advocate and publisher of Out & About magazine.

“This is a real catalyst. … It adds a layer of credibility to Wilmington as a whole,” says Chris Winburn, a principal in Preservation Initiatives, which, along with the Buccini/Pollin Group, is redeveloping much of Market Street between Rodney Square and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

“This has the potential to be a real game changer for downtown,” adds Mike Purzycki, who himself has overseen quite a bit of local game changing as executive director of the Wilmington Riverfront Development Corporation.

Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker expresses enthusiasm as well. “I think it’s going to be a generator—not so much in revenues for the city, but it will help create new businesses and new activities.”

“Revitalization,” “catalyst,” “game changer,” “generator”—high expectations for a  vaudeville house-turned-movie theater that has stood vacant since 1959.

In the next breath, however, boosters say “not so fast.”

“I don’t want to over-promote it as the savior for downtown. It’s not,” cautioned Mayor Baker, noting that the city has no estimate of how much tax revenue the entertainment complex might generate for its cash-starved treasury.

“People have to be realistic,” said Purzycki. “It’s going to take a little time to change living habits, social habits” of suburban Wilmington residents to encourage them to spend more time downtown, he said. “The Riverfront took some time, and now we have 150,000 people visiting each year for walks, runs, festivals.”


Watch our full interview with Bill Taylor, Executive Director of the Light Up the Queen Foundation here.


[caption id="attachment_9103" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ceiling medallion in main theater restored "]https://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/queen_ren_2-300x200.jpg[/caption]

The Queen Theater offers the promise of new life in the midsection of downtown Market Street, between the storied DuPont Theatre and Grand Opera House, which anchor the north end, and the newly hip lower Market Street (“LOMA”) district south of Fourth Street. As anticipation of the Queen’s opening grows, so does the roster of true believers in the project. They have been a force in the nearly complete fund-raising campaign of the Light Up the Queen Foundation, which has raised $23 million of the $25 million goal. A little more than half of those funds have come from government grants and tax credits and the rest from business, foundation, and individual donations.

Supporters see strength in the partnership between the Queen’s owners, the Buccini/Pollin Group, and the Philadelphia-based World Café Live. with a proven track record averaging 550 ticketed shows and 150,000 visitors per year in Philadelphia for the last five years. With a 14-year lease and options that could stretch it to 19 years, World Café Life is clearly committed for the long haul.

Hal Real, president and founder of World Café Live, says the Queen will be a slightly scaled-down version of the Philadelphia operation. The first-year target is 300 to 400 ticketed shows and “a couple hundred” private parties and special events, bringing about 100,000 visitors to the venue, he says.

“We’d love to see Wilmington build to [the Philadelphia] level,” Real says.


Bill Taylor, Light Up the Queen Foundation - Executive Director

Taylor discusses efforts to book acts at the Queen to date

[flashvideo file=http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/taylor_excerpt_1.flv image=http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/taylor_excerpt_1.jpg width=680 height=400 /]


Flexible seating arrangements will permit performance attendance of 900 or so for standing-room-only shows down to 400 for “a sit-down, black-tablecloth jazz show,” says Bill Taylor, executive director of the Light Up the Queen Foundation.

Performances—many by cutting-edge, up-and-coming artists—will feature a range of styles, including reggae, jazz, and blues, he says.

With a 160-seat café serving lunch and dinner, the Queen will be a magnet for both the business lunch crowd and the evening and weekend music lovers, Real and Taylor say.

The café also will offer music with no cover charge. A weekly open mic night is scheduled for Mondays, and singer/guitarist David Bromberg, whose violin shop is just a block away, will host a blues jam on Tuesday nights.

In addition, individuals and groups can rent private rooms for anything from a child’s birthday party to a wedding reception.

“A huge part of the business plan is food and beverages and private events,” Taylor says.

Food and beverages may help drive the bottom line but “music is the fuel that runs the car that brings the passengers who eat the food and drink the booze. One doesn’t exist without the other,” Real says.

[caption id="attachment_9104" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Murals of the Muses uncovered in the Queen Theater during renovation are being left intact."]https://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/queen_ren_3-300x200.jpg[/caption]

The Queen’s larger impact will be what goes on up and down Market Street after it opens. Vacant storefronts dot the two blocks to the north; the two blocks to the south have even more holes, but Preservation Initiatives plans a major residential/retail project south of the Queen this spring, Winburn says.

“I’ve heard the analogy that Market Street has a lot of pearls but it’s not a necklace. We’re stringing together those pearls,” Winburn says. “It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s coming together, and the Queen would be the centerpiece of that necklace.”

What those pearls eventually might look like is a matter of some discussion.

Winburn says there’s room at street level for retailers and services to meet the needs of the residents living in second- and third-floor units.

DuPhily believes that Market Street’s future lies in dining and live entertainment —activities that require people to get out of their houses and which will promote an active, vibrant downtown.

“Culture, musical and culinary, has more legs than ‘Let’s try to get some boutiques to come here,’” duPhily says. “You’ve got a couple of established entertainment centers —the Grand, DuPont Theatre, Christina Cultural Arts Center, Delaware History Museum. You have real culture on Market Street that you can market and package.”

Will Minster, a former downtown business owner who is now director of economic restructuring and Main Street program manager for the city’s Downtown Visions effort, says he’s working now to “connect the dots.”

Like duPhily, Minster envisions Market Street as an entertainment and dining hub. One of his concerns, however, is that the current retail mix, especially south of the Queen, doesn’t match the direction the area is heading. Some stores that have catered to lower-income city residents for years might do better in new locations where they could be closer to their customers and pay less in rent, he says.

“A lot of these businesses will struggle because the area’s changing into something that’s not beneficial to their business,” Minster said. “Sometimes, you can be in too good an area.”

Another concern is the extent to which the Queen might trigger competition for the entertainment dollar.

Steve Bailey, executive director of the Grand Opera House, expects World Café Live, with its successful history in Philadelphia, to thrive in Wilmington. He sees World Café Live as an enhancement, not a competitor. After all, the Grand has a larger house (1,200 seats) in a traditional theater setting and appeals to an older demographic by booking established acts rather than up-and-comers. But he still worries some.

“I have my moments when I’m encouraged. I have my moments when I’m scared to death,” he said.

One of Bailey’s hopes is that World Café Live, with its success in launching performers’ careers, might boost their popularity enough that they’ll eventually play before a packed house in the Grand.

Taylor thinks Bailey has little to fear. “More going on benefits everybody,” he says.

Taylor likes to describe the Queen as a “clubhouse for the community” and stresses its responsibility to serve. He says the foundation will bring schoolchildren to the theater for shows and to learn about music. Also, knowing that when musicians focus intensely on their art, “the business end falls by the wayside,” the Queen might offer lessons in finance and money management, he says.


Bill Taylor, Light Up the Queen Foundation - Executive Director

Taylor admits he feels pressure for The Queen to succeed.

[flashvideo file=http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/taylor_excerpt_2.flv image=http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/taylor_excerpt_2.jpg width=680 height=400 /]


The Queen is ready to light up, even if its surroundings aren’t quite ready to shine.

“It’s a process,” says developer Winburn. “We all wish we could turn on a light and it would all be there.”

“The Queen is going to close the gap between the Riverfront and the Grand,” Purzycki says.

DuPhily, calling himself an “optimistic conservative,” says he hasn’t seen such optimism in Wilmington since the opening of Frawley Stadium in 1993.

To some, failure is not an option.

“They’ve got to win or they’re going to tarnish us all,” the Grand’s Bailey says. “There’s nothing that could give the boo-birds a perch higher in the tree than to be able to say, ‘I told you you were crazy.’

“I don’t need that. The stakes are high, and I’m in.”