Wilmington’s Queen Theater is losing its current management, but is expected to remain open.
World Café Live will depart the venue when its contract is up on May 25
Building owner Buccini/Pollin said in a statement Tuesday the venue will be known simply as “The Queen,” following the World Cafe’s departure.
In the statement, Buccini/Pollin thanked the World Cafe Live founder Hal Real and confirmed that The Queen will remain a live music venue going forward.
The company also hinted that it may already have a new venue manager lined up, with news of a big announcement expected soon.
In an email to supporters, World Café Live founder and president Hal Real says despite the growth on Wilmington Market Street around The Queen, revitalization is not moving fast enough to support World Café Live 7 day a week business model.
Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzyicki’s office says World Café Lives departure does not mean The Queen will close. The mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Communications John Rago in an email says a new management company is coming to operate the Queen.
"It will be better than ever!" said Rago in the email.
The news of World Café Live's decision comes nearly a year after The Queen celebrated the 5th anniversary of its reopening. At that time, Real told Delaware Public Media the venue and Market Street were still works in progress.
“I think we’re very linked at the hip to Wilmington hitting the tipping point. We will do so together in the next five years," said Real last March. "We’re both making great progress, but we still have a little ways to go. I think Wilmington looks very different now physically and feels different spiritually than it did 5 years ago. I think will be very much changed, even more so, five years from now."
In his email to supporters, Real now says “while I’m certainly no quitter, you really do have to 'know when to fold.'”
When the live entertainment venue and restaurant opened it doors back in 2011, it was hailed as a “game changer” in the effort to revive lower Market Street. Supporters hoped giving new life to the former vaudeville house-turned-movie theater that had stood vacant since 1959 would draw people and other businesses to the area.
A year ago, Real told Delaware Public Media that in its first 5 years The Queen drew over a half million people to nearly 2,000 shows and over 950 events.
