The Denis Theatre Foundation is embarking on a major push over the next month to raise enough money to purchase the Denis Theatre on Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon and reopen it by late 2011.  Purchasing the Denis means the foundation must raise $750,000 by Feb. 28, when the purchasing options expire, foundation executive director Anne Kemerer said.  Raja, president of the Mt. Lebanon commission, owns the building.

 

The foundation's project to resurrect the Denis, which opened in 1938 and closed in disrepair in 2004, started in the spring of 2008. Shortly after the fundraising project began, the economy took a dive, and efforts at raising money ground to a halt, Ms. Kemerer said.  But the dream was not dead.

 

"A movie theater is a really important driving element of a main street area, and main street movie theaters are a dying breed," Ms. Kemerer said. "If we don't save the one we have, there will never be a movie theater again in Uptown Mt. Lebanon.  "This is the main opportunity we have to save this community treasure," she said.

 

So last January, the foundation hired a fundraising consultant to study the feasibility of the project. The study concluded that the end goal was still possible, with modifications.  In phase one, the foundation would renovate portions of the building -- updating heating, air conditioning, electrical and plumbing systems -- make it handicapped accessible and operate one screen. The cost is projected at $2.5 million.  Phase two involves further building renovations and operating three screens, bringing the project's total cost to $4.5 million.

 

The first step is to purchase the building. During the summer, the group began a reinvigorated capital campaign, with a goal of raising the $2.5 million for phase one, and a more immediate goal of raising $750,000 by Feb. 28.

 

"I am optimistic that we will buy the theater," Ms. Kemerer said. "But it really is going to take the support of the whole community and those people who have been thinking for a while, 'Oh gosh, I really want the Denis to open.' "

 

The Denis Theatre Foundation is sponsoring a fundraiser from 7:30 to 11 p.m. Feb. 6. The Raise the Curtain event includes food, music and dancing and is being held at the Mount Washington home of Peter Karlovich, a Mt. Lebanon High School graduate, and Steven Herforth. Tickets are $250 a person and can be purchased at www.denistheatre.com. Donations can be made through the Web site as well.  At the gala, Mr. Karlovich and Mr. Herforth will auction the use of their house for a future event.

 

The Denis Theatre Foundation has already raised about $250,000 but is looking for large donations. There are naming rights opportunities for various portions of the building, Ms. Kemerer said.

 

"We are really relying extremely on individuals in the South Hills," she said.

 

In addition, state Rep. Matt Smith, D-Mt. Lebanon, secured funding in the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program budget. But the funds have not yet been released by Gov. Ed Rendell, and there is no guarantee that he will do so, Mr. Smith said in an e-mail. The amount of money the foundation would receive is uncertain.  Mt. Lebanon's commercial districts manager Eric Milliron supports the addition of a theater to Washington Road.  "Should the Denis Theatre open, and we all hope that it does, the impacts will be tremendous and visible," he said, and will draw more people to the Uptown area and to its shops and restaurants.

 

Ms. Kemerer didn't grow up in Mt. Lebanon, but she said her work with the foundation is a bit of nostalgia for the increasingly rare main street movie theater, such as the one she attended during her childhood in a small town in Connecticut.

 

"I think it is an experience that would be very difficult to find almost anywhere anymore," she said.