The Nelson Civic Theatre Society (NCTS) has some big news to share with the community on Wednesday, April 29, regarding the future of the Civic Theatre and what’s happening with the cinema that has been closed for two years, since April of 2024.

The NCTS will be hosting a “symbolic groundbreaking” on Vernon Street out front of the Civic Theatre (719 Vernon St.) from 4:00 to 4:30 pm on Wednesday, followed by an open house starting at 4:30 pm at the Adventure Hotel (616 Vernon St.), where both society members and the general public can see plans for the renovation of the facility and learn more about this next phase of construction. Depending on construction timelines and fundraising, the organization is hopeful that the first phase of the renovation will be completed, and that the facility will be reopened with at least one screen operational by early next year.

To attend the groundbreaking, please email info@civictheatre.ca.

Here is our Local Journalism Initiative reporter, Jaime Frederick, with an interview with the Civic Theatre’s Executive Director, Eleanor Stacey.

Listen to the audio of this interview, which aired on Kootenay Morning on Monday, April 27, 2026:

Interview transcript (lightly edited):

Jaime: Hi Eleanor. Tell me about this groundbreaking event you’re holding on Wednesday. What’s going on?

Eleanor: So the groundbreaking is happening in front of the Civic Theatre, and we’ll have some celebratory remarks and a… symbolic groundbreaking in front of the theatre. Of course, we can’t go inside at this point because it’s very much a construction [zone], and it’s worth noting you know, there’s not a lot of room outside of the theatre.

So we will be asking people to assemble on the sidewalk and maybe across the street on the sidewalk on the other side of Vernon Street. We’ve had a lot of interest already in that. We have over 70 RSVPs, and one of the things I would ask is that community members please RSVP if they can to come to that portion, even though it’s outside, just because we would really like to know a crowd is coming. It’s exciting to see how much interest is there. 

So when you say it’s a symbolic groundbreaking, what does that mean? 

We’re not actually digging any dirt. This isn’t one of those situations where we’re actually digging up a lot and putting up a new building. So any groundbreaking we have right now is symbolic. 

What is the state of the building inside? You said it’s a construction zone right now? And I understand this is phase one of the Civic’s portion of the redevelopment. So the roof is all finished, right? 

The roof is all finished, the city’s project is complete, and the roof is up to code and safe and good to go. The Civic Theatre project hasn’t begun, so starting in May, we will be working with a construction management company, Chandos Construction, and they are getting started in May to just begin site preparation and start the process towards converting our single auditorium into three theatres. 

That’s fantastic. This is the project that the community has been waiting so long for. Tell us what’s going to happen.

A huge part of it has to do with overall upgrades to the facility. So we all know and love the Civic Theatre as the old and beloved venue that it is. The way that everyone remembers the Civic with the large proscenium stage and our beautiful retractable screen that we installed a number of years ago–all of that will feel the way that we know it already now. We are adding a wall that will be right along where the cross aisle is now when you usually come into the theatre, and go into the two walkways on each side towards the stage. 

That area is going to feel very familiar still, but there will be a wall that goes up at that cross aisle to separate the theatre that we know from the two new spaces we’re building in the back of the auditorium. So as people might remember, as the theatre is laid out right now, you would come up the ramp in the middle and then go to either side and go towards the front of the stage, or you would go up a couple of steps and go into sort of that little, I mean, it’s not a balcony, but let’s call it a balcony. That won’t feel like that anymore. There will be walls there and those two balcony areas actually form the beginning of those new smaller theatres that will be around 60 and 70 seats each. And the auditorium we know will be 220 seats. 

It’s just exciting, because the project has been underway for how long now? 

The project has been in planning and fundraising going back to the inception of Nelson Civic Theatre Society back in 2012. We became a society in 2012, we became a charity in 2016, and we’ve been fundraising all along. The most significant portions of our fundraising to date were all received in 2020. But, you know, various influences have affected our ability to be able to move forward for the last six years. Less so the pandemic, but more to do with other upgrades that needed to happen to the building. 

The process that the City undertook with the roof was really important. Just for overall safety and the ability for an aging building to continue to be used. So we’re really happy that that’s happened, but it has caused us obviously a delay. And during that time, costs have only gone up in the last six years. So what we originally anticipated would be a $4.2 million project actually now really comes to more of a $7.4 million project, of which we’ve raised $5 million. So this first phase includes that $5 million or so… plus usage of the line of credit that’s been offered to us very generously by the City of Nelson. 

So as it is right now, this first phase will be around $5.6 million. And then as we’re building, this groundbreaking has actually two effects. One is to show the community that we are in fact now coming out of a period of dormancy at the Civic and moving into the actual construction of this first phase. But it’s also signaling to the community the need to continue fundraising and to finish the second phase–which is now still another $2.4 million that needs to be raised in order to be able to do all the things that allow us to create a really extraordinary place for this generation and generations to come. things that in these subsequent phases will be solved.

Tell me about some of these future features that you’re planning for the facility.

So the things that in these subsequent phases will be supported will be more of our accessibility features. There’s a limited use, limited accessibility elevator in our plans that still needs to be funded, for example. We also will be looking at the acoustic systems that go into our second and third theatres, and then being able to… finish all of the beautiful finishes in the spaces…. 

This first phase really constitutes a partial reopening of the Civic. We can’t build all three screens with this first phase, but we can get the theatre reopened with this first phase, renovate the lobby, put in accessible bathrooms and really modernize some of the elements of the theatre that have you know needed that attention for a long time, but we can’t finish all three theatres with the funds that we have to date, which is why this additional fundraising for another $2.4 [million] is going to be necessary.

So tell us why people should attend the groundbreaking on Wednesday. What are they going to learn there?

I’d love for people to come to the open house because it’s a great opportunity for them to learn more about what we’ve been doing for the last couple of years to try to make this project come to fruition, to get to this moment that we’re in right now, and to see what’s to come. You know, why we still need to raise these funds and to really understand what’s going to happen when the theatre reopens.

If people want more information, they can come down to the event on Wednesday, April 29, and hopefully we’ll see lots of the community out. It’s very exciting for those of us who are Civic Theatre members, including myself, and also for the general community who are looking forward, I’m sure, to having access to a bigger, more modernized cinema space in our community. So thanks so much for your hard work and the hard work of your board and your volunteers. I’m sure it’s been a huge team effort for the last 14 years to get just to this phase. 

I should say this has been a huge team effort for well over a decade, and this is the culmination of so many hands making this come to pass. It’s really exciting to see it happen. There are a number of people who have been on this project since the beginning, which I’m just always amazed by, the tenacity and commitment of a certain… there’s a group of people who’ve just been there all along. And then so many people who have joined the campaign since. You know, I look at our membership, and even now, with the Civic being closed for the last two years, I am amazed that we still see 700 members renewing right now, and we would really love to see our membership get back up to the numbers it was before, which was around double that.

If you build it, they will come. 

Yeah, I think that that’s really the message. I also need to say this is just the beginning of the next chapter, and we do need the community to be part of this…. This isn’t going to be as simple as us just… renewing the venue. It really is going to need a lot of people still being part of it. And so we’re really hoping that when people come to the open house, they come to learn more about what we’re doing, and think about ways that they might be able to be part of this next push, because the last $2.4 [million] is a pretty significant sum, and we are going to need people to help us along. 

So how much of the $5.6 million is made up from grants? You mentioned there’s the city’s line of credit, which sounds like $600,000?

I can let you know that we have around $5 million in funding, and then beyond that, we’ll be leaning on our line of credit to close the gap. But when we fundraise that $2.4 million, our goal is to cut the ribbon on the new venue with all three theatres, with no debt to the (Nelson Civic Theatre Society). 

And the reason for that is because anything we have to pay back after we reopen is going to come out of funds that we could otherwise be putting towards the programs and services that we offer to the community. So the more that we can do to close the gap before we reopen entirely, the more that the community benefits on the other side from the things that we can do. And it’s exciting because NCTS, since the very beginning, has operated and developed their plans with a social enterprise model in mind, which means that by the time we reopen, our goal with three theatres remains to be self sustaining, and any surpluses we have, because we’re a charity, will go back into the programs and services that we’re dedicated to. So it creates a really beautiful opportunity for our community to be able to thrive in all sorts of ways that we’re just starting to dream up. 

It’s the way things have to work in communities the size of Nelson and… it’s a brilliant way to involve the whole community and get them engaged and on board. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about the open house? 

We’re going to have an opportunity for people to record videos about what they love, about the Civic, what they miss with the Civic being closed, and what they’re looking forward to in the future. And I would just really encourage people to come out and to put their thoughts on video with us, because we’d really love to be able to get those testimonials and understand more about what makes people excited about it, and also be able to use some of that footage as we start to tell the story more broadly in the next year.

Thanks for sharing all the information., Eleanor. It’s great to hear what’s going on, and very exciting for us cinema lovers.

I know it’s going to be a really beautiful space. It’s going to be really wonderful when it gets reopened.

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