Rotary clubs combine to purchase Monarch Theatre

“I’ve been going to the Monarch Theatre since I was nine years old in Medicine Hat. I’ve also been to weddings in the Monarch Theatre in years past,” says Devine, who is also the president of the Saamis Rotary Club of Medicine Hat. “I think it’s a great venue in the heart of our downtown and I think it would be a shame to lose it. There’s a lot of history there.”

Devine is confident there’s more than enough money in the community that people are willing to donate to the cause. He’s also confident that it will generate enough revenue to do any repairs that come up.

The theatre will be operated by Plugged-In Media, a Medicine Hat podcast and live-video production company.

It will be run as a movie theatre and it will host live performances.

“There’ll be movies there will be comedians, there will be acts there will be all kinds of different things going on in the theatre. We’ll try and utilize as much as possible,” says Devine.

He says the Monarch will fill a niche for groups and events that are looking for a smaller venue than Co-op Place or even the Esplanade.

Devine says he and his group had to wait until the purchase was made official so haven’t been able to make much in the way of concrete plans.

Because of that, there isn’t a date set for the grand opening. But Devine knows what will play on the screen.

“Luke Fandrich has done a documentary. That will be the grand opening, will be the presentation of that documentary,” he says.

Fandrich, better known as Editing Luke has been working since early 2022 on the documentary titled Your Cinema Needs You.

The approval of the sale at Monday’s council meeting ends more than two years of ownership of the theatre by the city, taking over the theatre from the City Centre Development Agency when it dissolved in the summer of 2021.

The city paid $145,000 in net costs at the time.

Negotiations between the city and an interested buyer following an expression of interest in January 2022 failed and a second attempt to sell the building began later that year.

Mayor Linnsie Clark calls the sale of the theatre to a local group is awesome.

“That theatre is such a part of the downtown experience and to have it up and running and programming started again so people are using that facility is just incredible,” she says.

One condition of the sale is that the city has right of first refusal for 50 years should the new owners want to unload the property. Clark says that control was important to have.

“To have that protection for us if at some point this group wants to sell that we would have the opportunity to once again protect that beautiful structure for years to come,” she says.

by Chris Brown

Rotary clubs combine to purchase Monarch Theatre

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