Candlelight Dinner Playhouse plans $10M two-story theater in Midtown FoCo

FORT COLLINS — A local theater company is planning to spend $10 million to build a new arts house in Midtown Fort Collins.

The Boardwalk Crossing Entertainment Facility and Theater is planned to have 34,000 square feet between two floors and roof terraces at 4012 S. Mason St., directly west of the REI store on South College Avenue.

Owner and executive producer Dave Clark told BizWest the building will have an auditorium that can seat between 800 to 1,000 people, along with rentable space to host conferences and other events. The building will also host an acting academy initially only for children, but that eventually may expand to adult classes.

The project is expected to cost around $10 million. Clark said a gap opened in the Fort Collins market when the Midtown Arts Center closed earlier this year after 11 years. The property is slated to be remade into low-income housing.

Clark owns the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse at Johnstown. Clark said Midtown’s longevity shows there’s demand for live shows in Northern Colorado.

“We know the Fort Collins market is very attuned to that type of entertainment,” he said. “We have obviously done our homework in terms of performers and numbers, and we really feel strongly and are confident this would be a good venture.”

The project is in the pre-submittal phase, but Clark expects to begin construction in the first half of 2020 and open the theater for shows in mid-2021. City officials will hear the first feedback on the project in a neighborhood meeting Wednesday night.