STARKVILLE — New York-based owners Greg and Mark Hayden are attempting to succeed where several other businesses have failed over the last 20 years: to regularly operate a restaurant, bar and live music venue at the State Theatre downtown.
The Haydens bought the venue in 2015, leasing it to third-parties that have all come and gone. Now, they’ve put $150,000 into renovating the space to run it themselves under its original name.
“The owners decided they would just see what they can do instead,” said co-manager Betty Brown.
The newest version of the State Theatre opened Sept. 6 as a bar and event venue. While the bar is the only thing buzzing at the moment, Davis Sandahl, the other co-manager, told The Dispatch she and her team are looking to book musicians for live events later this month.
A restaurant also is in future plans to fill the downstairs space.
“We just wanted to give it a new and different vibe,” Davis said. “Every time I go down to the Cotton District, I just get anxious because there’s just so much going on. We want something a little more relaxed where everybody can come and relax. We’re going to do a bunch of different genres of music too.”
The State Theatre opened in the 1930s and operated as a movie house until 1992. After new owners removed the building’s movie components and added a bar, The Dog House operated as a bar and music venue into the early 2000s. By 2010, the space had reopened and closed another two times under different owners aiming to do the same thing.
The Haydens purchased the building from Daniel Waide, who operated Dawg Wingz there in 2013 but closed less than a year later.
Most recently, Mark Hobart, who owns Hobie’s On Main just above the theatre, had been renting out the downstairs space for private events since 2016. Brown said he decided not to renew his lease on the concert hall, but Hobart’s bar will continue operating upstairs.
Jennifer Gregory, president of downtown strategies for the Retail Strategies firm and former CEO of the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, said part of the reason so many businesses could have failed at the location was due to the sheer size of the 16,800 square-foot building and the heightened cost of maintenance, though many theaters feature this combination.
“Theaters in general are excellent uses in a downtown area, but they come with challenges,” Gregory wrote in an email to The Dispatch.
“Primarily, the square footage footprint of the space is large, which comes with it an associated rent or purchase per square foot. This is why many operators pair food and modern-day entertainment with the traditional theater space.”
Sandahl said another challenge the venue faces is finding quality talent to attract customers.
“Places Like Rick’s Cafe and Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern, and even fraternities and sororities at (Mississippi State University), have booked people through the end of the school year,” she said. “Some of those musicians have agreements that they only play there.”
Mayor Lynn Spruill said despite the challenges a business like State Theatre faces, she is glad to see the place reopen and hopes that it will draw some MSU students from the Cotton District into the downtown area.
“When I was growing up, I used to go to the movies there, so I’m very fond of the fact that people are trying to bring it back to life,” Spruill said. “I’m excited about having events downtown. I’ve always thought that the Cotton District was the Cotton District and then downtown had other things to offer. So, I like the idea of us having more than one location for that.”
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