NEW ORLEANS (CelebrityAccess) — The State Palace Theater has been purchased by a commercial real estate developer for $3.5 million.
According to the The Times-Picayune, developer Gregor Fox intends to turn the 3,000 seat property, which dates from the 1920s, into a modern event space at the estimated cost of $10 million.
"It is a property that is good for not only traditional shows like ballet and theater," Fox told the Times-Picayune. "You can have corporate events there. It's essentially a very big event space but the thing that attracted me to this property — it had the attached retail component to the building."
However, don't expect to attend any shows at the theater any time soon. The theater has idled since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when the building suffered flooding damage. Fox told the Times-Picayune that the full restoration will likely take 10 years to complete.
The theater had previously been the focus of pre-Katrina plans to turn the building into a music hall and museum but said plans fell through following the storm. – Staff Writers
