After decades of vacancy, Denton’s historic Fine Arts Theater is being reimagined as a vibrant space for arts, film, and education. Set to reopen in Spring 2026, the revitalized theater will serve as a cornerstone for the city’s cultural identity, thanks to a partnership between local developers and the City of Denton.
Originally built in 1931, the building once operated as the Texas Theater before a fire forced its closure. It later reopened as the Fine Arts Theater but has sat largely unused since 1982.
“The building was built in 1931 and it was the Texas theater for a while, a fire took it out of commission,” Assistant city manager Christine Taylor said. “Then it opened as a fine arts theater and then went vacant. Historically of 1982 to now, it’s been vacant. Some churches rented it. It was used on and off for a couple things, but it predominantly sat vacant for 40 years.”
Now, the Fine Arts Theater is being brought back to life with a $10 million restoration project, $1.6 million of which is being contributed by the city. The remaining funding will come from the developer.
“The city’s piece in this is we value the historical aspect of the building,” Taylor said. “It’s on our square proper. It’s iconic to our look, to our community. It maintains our cultural identity. So the city recognized value in partnering with the developer to see how we could contribute funds.”
The revamped space will host live performances, film screenings, concerts, and private events—expanding Denton’s capacity to support its bustling arts scene.
“So it’s going to be live performances, movies, special events, film festivals, concerts, private rentals,” Taylor said. “And where the city saw value in that is we have so many events in downtown. It’s what we’re known for.”
Festivals like Thin Line Fest and the Denton Black Film Festival, both signature events for the city, stand to benefit from the renewed venue.
“This is a perfect fit for supporting festivals like Thin Line Film Festival, the Denton Black Film Festival,” Taylor said. “So a real opportunity to preserve a storied building and put it to use with what makes our identity unique.”
City leaders emphasized that this project was structured with more than business goals in mind—it was built with community impact at its core.
“Since the city has participating and funding the agreement, we were able to go in and structure the agreement and ask for things more than a business proposal,” Taylor said. “We’re able to say, ‘hey, what is going to be the community impact?’ And so they are very committed to the community impact.”
One of those commitments includes providing opportunities for local students and aspiring professionals in creative industries.
“When we took it to council, we highlighted a couple of these things,” Taylor said. “And job training is one of them. [We’ll] be partnering with TWU and UNT on students who are training, and internships for aspiring film, hospitality, theater and art majors. They have committed to our community.”
Taylor said the venue will also serve as a more affordable and accessible place for cultural groups and local artists to gather.
“Any of those groups like Thin Line and Black Film Festival we have were a music friendly city,” Taylor said. “So making it where our local events that we want to support musicians have discounted rates, to hold fundraisers, celebrations, events they’re going to offer, low or no cost events related to cultural history screenings, including guest speakers.”
Beyond the festivals and performances, the theater will partner with Denton ISD and surrounding districts to offer educational opportunities for students.
“When we have events like through the Denton Black Film Festival and we can bring in a speaker, this would be a great place that they’ve committed to,” Taylor said. “We want to support the community and highlight our local artists and our local history. They plan to be working with Denton ISD and neighboring districts for field trips, educational on historic films, and present and host educational productions.”
The restoration is being done with a focus on preserving the building’s architectural heritage. The plan includes a main 200-seat theater, a 30-seat mezzanine theater with bar, and a third-floor private screening room with views of the square.
“They really vetted out that idea and came back and said, ‘we do want to do the historical preservation piece of it and maintain as much of that historical preservation identity as possible,’” Taylor said. “But they’re going to do a spin on it. So it’s not going to just be a movie theater.”
The structure itself is about 9,000 square feet across multiple levels and has suffered from water damage and roof issues during its long vacancy.
“The first floor, they’re going to have a lobby and a bar concession, a main theater that will seat 200,” Taylor said. “That second floor is going to have a second theater with a 30 seat mezzanine, which will be really cool. A bar. They’ve got some big windows that will overlook the square, so that will be really great for all the events that they do downtown. And then the third floor is going to have a private theater that can be rented out for private events or smaller showings.”
The project has received enthusiastic support across the community, including unanimous approval from the city council.
“We have seven council members, seven districts, six council members and a mayor,” Taylor said. “And typically when we bring items forward, it just requires a 4-3 vote to pass. So we don’t typically have complete, where all seven district members agree and value a project. And this one received 7-0 support, which I can’t think of anything else happening like that in a long time.”
Dustin Sternbag, the City of Denton’s Chief Communications Officer said residents feel emotionally connected to the project.
“It’s really one of our iconic anchors on our square,” Sternbag said. “I mean, and to those folks that would come to council and speak about the nostalgic piece of this, this iconic building is more than just a building. I mean, they were sharing childhood memories, and they want to be able to share those with their children. And it’s really a central hub for our community. And, folks are really proud about this project and passionate about it.”
Getting the agreement to a place that satisfied both the city and developers took about a year of planning and negotiation.
“It went through several iterations of ‘what can we agree on?’” Taylor said. “We had to go through underwriting to make sure [that] if the city’s going to invest, that this is a business that will be open and can sustain operations, and ‘what is the impact of the jobs?’”
Even the city council chamber, typically quiet during contract discussions, was full the night the proposal was presented.
“We took [the structure agreement] to council, I think on April 2nd of last year,” Taylor said. “Typically the chamber is not really full and people don’t come out and speak on contracts, [but] we had a full slate of community members, business owners, people from the arts and culture community talking in support of it. This is one project that I feel like everyone in the community felt like it was their project, and was really proud to get it approved.”
While securing historic tax credits proved to be more complicated than anticipated, funding is now in place and early construction has begun.
“We had a little bit of a challenge,” Taylor said. “Part of their funding strategy was to sell historic tax credits. And that proved to be a little more complicated than any of us thought. So they’ve gotten all their funding squared away, and they actually started early construction and they anticipate about a year. So we’re hoping for, and it’s on track, to be open in the Spring of 26.”
Looking beyond the theater, Denton officials are working on other projects aimed at preserving and enhancing the downtown area.
“We just passed a downtown Master plan that identified several type of catalyst projects that we’re working on,” Taylor said. “Nothing that we are ready to speak about yet. But, yes, a lot of things in queue focused on downtown.”
This includes discussions about creating a new public space where the mini mall once stood before a 2017 fire.
“If you look, there’s a lot of conversation and thought behind the big vacant lot where the mini mall burned down in 2017,” Taylor said. “‘So what can we do with that area?’ We’re talking about a park and some type of arts and culture area where we can have additional concerts, talks about a hotel downtown. So a lot of momentum and exciting ideas going into keeping our downtown really unique and embracing our cultural identity down there.”
As for the Fine Arts Theater, Taylor is excited about the potential for new traditions to emerge in the historic space.
“I’m excited about this project for the opportunities to build on all the cool things that makes us different,” she said. “Certainly, Dustin and I are really proud of the Halloween-ish initiatives that happened this last year, so I’m excited for the Fine Arts Theater to be part of that when it’s open. Like, how can we build on that with horror movie screenings, meet and greets, people coming in, so I’m excited about that piece and what it does to our festivals… I think it opens up a real opportunity for us to have some of those really cool events that people typically travel to Dallas or to Fort Worth for.”
