Avondale Estates’ Towne Cinema announced on Facebook last Saturday that it was closing Dec. 15, but added that it “was working on someone else coming into the space.”
It turns out that Joseph White, who lists his company as Please Rock Me, LLC, has filed a conditional use permit application to lease the 94-year-old landmark. The application comes before the city’s commission on Dec. 10 during its final regular meeting of the year.
Although the closing just became public, the application was filed last July 30. White did not return a call for comment. Several hours, however, after the AJC left him a message Tuesday afternoon his company put out a press release announcing that 37 Main will be “opening soon in the Historic Avondale Towne Cinema space.”
White, or at least his company, owns two clubs called 37 Main Rock Café, one in Buford and the other in Gainesville, Ga.
On his permit White says his proposed use “is the same as the existing performing arts venue with live music and a bar.” His proposed hours of operation are seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The building dates to 1924 when it was originally the post office and city hall before serving as Avondale’s movie theater from 1938 until roughly the mid-1960s.
More recently it sat dormant for nine years before getting reopened in August 2015, by Tony Longval, longtime band roadie, set builder, entrepreneur and jack-of-all trades. For Longval, known to occasionally dress like his hero Elvis Presley, the 18-month restoration of the structure’s interior was a labor of love. He even scouted similar venues around the country to help influence his project.
Longval didn’t return a call from the AJC, but he or someone representing Towne Cinema, wrote on Facebook, “After years of trying to make the business profitable, we can no longer continue to operate. Our landlords were great in helping make this successful but they could not back us anymore …”
The Towne Cinema is 6,000 square feet and Longval set the lower-floor capacity at around 300, although it’s held as many as 500 in past incarnations. There’s also a space upstairs with a bar and room for 50.
On his application White wrote, “37 Main is a powerful brand that attracts other commercial uses. We believe this will encourage more healthy retailers to expand into Avondale Estates … [The Towne Cinema] will be an economic driver that will benefit downtown Avondale estates. This will be our third location and we will be able to now route more national acts through Georgia. Bigger acts = more spending.”
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