The 125-year-old Storyville Theater in downtown Salida is undergoing a major renovation that will add various new functions to the space. Plans for the new space, called the Sundry, include a music venue that can hold roughly 600 attendees, a bar and restaurant, a rentable community space – all while maintaining its space as a movie theater.
Dillon Gross is the director of operations with the Sundry team. Gross said only a few aspects of the building will remain, including the main storefront. The rest is being torn down and rebuilt.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the former Storyville Theater was in pretty bad shape in terms of the actual physical condition of the building,” Gross said. “Which meant that in order for us to kind of fit everything that we wanted to fit and go up a little bit on top of the original theater, some of that building had to come down.”
However, he said the construction team is preserving what they can.
“I've been personally in the building, pulling it apart, supporting old brick walls, removing some of the original timbers so that we could save and repurpose them and doing everything I can with my own hands to make sure that we keep the original building intact and bring it back to what it once was,” Gross said.
The Sundry team said in a press release that it's focused on community service and engagement, and will work to keep events accessible to locals in the Chaffee County area.
Once complete, the venue will have two areas to watch movies. One will be a traditional movie room. The other will be the music venue which, according to plans, can convert into a theater via a drop-down screen.
Gross said, weather permitting, the Sundry team expects the venue to reopen in late 2026 or early 2027.
