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App Theatre Update at DBDA Annual Meeting: 40 Percent of Capital Campaign Accomplished, ‘Doing Quite Well’

By Jesse Wood

Aug. 28, 2013. John Cooper led things off at the Downtown Boone Development Association’s annual meeting on Tuesday evening with an update on the restoration of the old Appalachian Twin Theatre.

(In November 2011, the Town of Boone purchased the old theatre for $624,500 in a foreclosure auction, which included $75,000 of Downtown Boone Development Association funds (DBDA), and the DBDA agreed to payback the Town of Boone the remaining $549,500 within three years and restore the theatre to its original 1938 appearance.)

The incorporated nonprofit Appalachian Theatre of the High Country established to manage the restoration process and eventually operate the theatre recently took possession of the theatre after taking out a $400,000 bridge loan to back the Town of Boone.

On Tuesday, Cooper said that the nonprofit has paid down $250,000 of that loan since it assumed control of the theatre last month and in the last 21 days has received $475,000 in cash and pledges.

He said the capital campaign is “really doing quite well.” He added that 40 percent of the entire financial goal has been received and about 65 percent of the private sector goal has come in, too.

Because the capital campaign is still in the silent phase, the end goal hasn’t been announced yet.

He noted that the architectural review committee has narrowed down a list of potential architectures for the restoration project and one should be selected very soon. While the project appears to be moving smoothly, organizers are still requesting any artifacts, programs, advertisements and photos of the historic theatre, particularly of the “early days.”

“It’s just a great project,” Cooper, who is the chair of the Appalachian Theatre of the High Country. “I get up every morning excited about it.”

For more information about the restoration project, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for more than a dozen articles about the project since the property was purchased November 2011.