Elba Theatre moves into phase two of their restoration project

ELBA, Ala. (WTVY) --

The Elba Theatre restoration project continues making progress.

After an estimated half a million dollars in renovations, Restoration 154 has finished phase one of their Elba Theatre project.

“We’re moving on to the second phase of this,” said Philip Box, Co-Founder of Restoration 154. “We’re finishing out a basement space. It’s the greenroom kind of space there at the theater. We’re also installing a second HVAC unit that’s needed.”

The journey to bring the theatre back to life began a decade ago.

“We initially bought the theater in 2011, and since then we’ve been working on it just on a consistent basis, a lot of stuff again going on behind the scenes.” Box added.

However, the non-profit didn’t get to immediately start restoring the theatre.

“When we started this project, our goal was to get through like in six months or something,” Box continued. “It has turned out to be like a six-year project and so we are getting a lot closer though and our goal would be to be through within about a year or so from now.”

Restoration 154 is committed to improving the lives of citizens in Elba and they hope their mission will accomplish that.

“Elba needs these kinds of things,” Box finished. “We have a great downtown area; we need people to be coming and seeing things we need people to come and use the facility in downtown Elba. It’s a difference maker for a downtown area.”

The group hopes to have the theatre completed before the end of 2023.

The Elba Theatre project was also recently selected as one of Lowe’s 100 Hometowns Impact projects.

Copyright 2021 WTVY. All rights reserved.

Subscribe to our News 4 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning. Get instant notifications on top stories from News 4 by downloading our mobile apps.