The Reitz Theater was the only building to survive the Downtown DuBois fire in the late 1880s.
Since then, Culture Resources Incorporated purchased the building and started the Reitz Theater back in the 1990s.
Recently they were awarded $300,000 from the Department of Economic Development for this theater.
“They gave us an additional $300,000 on our own we had raised about $140,000 so we’re using all those funds together to do some improvements on the building and also to build our addition,” said Joe Sensor, Past President for Culture Resources Inc..
Sensor said this money will give the theater more storage and shop space for the theatre.
A relief for the theater given the burden of COVID-19.
“All of our shows that remained back in 2019 early 2020 we cancelled the rest of our 2020 season, so the theater has been empty since then,” he said.
Debbie Wirths, Board member for CRI, said this money will help to drive tourism to Downtown DuBois as they’ll be able to have more shows in the future.
“We contracted with a local architecture firm KTH and they have begun the process in assisting us with selecting a contractor. So we’re hoping to have that selected by early July,” she said.
Wirths said they hope to break ground on the theater by the end of the summer.
