A downtown Columbus landmark is getting a new lease on life.
Following the departure of a church that had formerly rented the space, Princess Theater owner William “Bart” Lawrence has reopened the bar and is planning to partner with the Columbus Arts Council to breathe new life into the theater.
Lawrence bought the Princess in 2008 and operated it as a nightclub until 2020, when he leased it to Sunday Local, a church, which operated there until June of this year. With its exit, Lawrence decided to dive back in.
“It kind of caught me off guard,” he said. “I was living the retired life. I didn’t have a lot of time to make a determination after they said they were leaving, and I just kind of reopened. It’s kind of low-key.”
While the basic functions of the bar — beer, karaoke, pool — are up and running, the theater portion remains closed, for now. Lawrence, along with Columbus Arts Council Operating Director Salem Gibson, have designs on reopening it as a community arts venue.
“I had seen some of the events that the church had in the theater, and they had a great response,” Lawrence said. “I had thought I was out of the nightlife business forever, and, coming back into it, I definitely didn’t want to go back to what we were doing before.”
Lawrence’s desire to change dovetailed neatly with Gibson’s desire to have a higher community profile.
“The CAC is desperately trying to get (beyond) the four walls of its building (Rosenzweig Arts Center),” Gibson said. “A lot of what makes a thriving art community is getting out in the community, and we’re going to try to make sure we’re part of everything that’s going on without people having to come through our doors.”
Gibson said both he and Lawrence want to be part of what they see as a re-energized downtown.
“We want to help make sure there is live music, there are poetry readings, there are activities going on, and we’ve got to get out to do that,” he said. “(Lawrence) was coming to a lot of our events, and I think he saw what the CAC is doing and our direction, and our goals kind of lined up with where he wanted to be.”
Lawrence said The Princess is a perfect venue to help downtown snap out of a “lull.”
“I feel like even before (the COVID-19 pandemic) downtown was in a lull, commercially and creatively,” he said. “You hear so much that there’s nothing to do, and when you would give people something to do they would say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know about that,’ or ‘That’s not what I wanted.’ It’s frustrating.”
Bringing back movies?
The theater seats about 350 on the floor and has a balcony with a capacity of 200, putting it right in the sweet spot between smaller venues and Trotter Convention Center.
“We’re looking at film, at live music, at stage performances,” Lawrence said. “The great thing about that room is with the right setup the sky’s the limit.”
Gibson said he wants to get back to The Princess’ roots as a place to see movies.
“We don’t want to be a one-trick pony,” he said. “We don’t want people to think art is painting or drawing. One thing that’s never been done here is a film festival. We are planning on starting small, but we want to make sure we can meet that need.”
Showing movies — or any use of the theater space — is still months away, though, Lawrence said.
“I had sold my entire sound system in there thinking I was sailing off into the sunset,” he said. “Now, with the price of everything going wild, we’re talking to folks and pursuing all avenues to (get new equipment.)”
The screen also needs some TLC.
“We still have the original Malco screen in there, and it’s ancient,” he said. “We’re looking at if it can be reused. It’ll never be perfect, of course, but it could add that historic touch.”
The theater also needs projection equipment and some upgrades for safety, Lawrence said.
“It’s in a pretty good state, otherwise,” he said. “I had recently redone all the bathrooms, and the church did some renovations while they were in here.”
Gibson said it was important to get community buy-in.
“We’re not trying to come in and do what we want,” Gibson said. “We want to make sure we’re doing what’s best, what is the community craving, what is it looking for. How can we connect, and how can we repurpose this place.”
Lawrence said he hopes working with the community will undo people’s negative associations with The Princess.
“The elephant in the room is that there’s a lot of people who look at The Princess in a negative light because of some of the things that happened in the past,” he said. “I don’t want anything to do with that type of thing anymore. I want positivity.”
The Princess will, for the foreseeable future, only make the theater available for community organizations.
“Constantly folks want to rent it, and we are not interested in that now,” he said. “We want to work with local organizations rather than being just another place you can rent. I want to make the theater better, and the community better. I live right here in downtown, I love seeing what’s going on. I feel like there’s really an upswing and I want to be part of that.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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