From silent movies to art exhibits, the Franklin Theater has housed a wide range of culture and entertainment in its 102-year history. This fall, Project for Pride in Living will raise the curtain on yet another act: employment training.
The building, at 1021 E. Franklin Ave. in Minneapolis, is undergoing a $9 million renovation that will gut the interior and create 16,000 square feet of employment training space. The training programs will prepare people for entry-level jobs in banking, health care and other fields. PPL develops affordable housing and provides other services to assist low-income people.
When the project is completed this fall, Minneapolis-based PPL will more than double the size of its training space. PPL currently offers employment training in its facility at 1035 E. Franklin Ave., the organization’s longtime headquarters.
The Franklin Theater has undergone multiple renovations since its early days as a venue for silent movies and vaudeville acts. But this is the biggest investment in the building since its original construction, PPL representatives said.
The renovated theater will be physically connected to the service center in PPL’s existing facility to create a single 43,500-square-foot headquarters complex, the organization said on its website.
Paul Williams, CEO of Project for Pride in Living, said the organization was outgrowing its training and office space. So when the two-story masonry building next door was put up for sale, “we had to look at it,” Williams said.
“We were growing by leaps and bounds. We were bursting at the seams in that facility and needed to find space,” Williams said in an interview.
PPL’s growth stems in part from the labor shortage in the community and the organization’s strong track record in job training, said Joanne Kosciolek, PPL’s vice president of development and external affairs.
“The word gets out that PPL does this well,” she said.
PPL paid $700,000 for the vacant theater in December 2015, according to a certificate of real estate value filed in Hennepin County. Minneapolis-based First & First LLC was the seller.
First & First LLC, led by CEO and developer Peter Remes, paid $560,000 for the building in 2014, according to a previous certificate of real estate value. The New Franklin Cultural Center, also based in Minneapolis, was the seller.
Denis Gardner, a National Register historian with the Minnesota Historical Society, said the Franklin Theater is not on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building was deemed ineligible for listing because of “significant alterations” and lack of sufficient historic integrity, according to Minnesota Historical Society documents. For example, the interior had been “stripped of most of its historic materials,” and the original wood stage was removed, the documents noted.
It was designed by Minneapolis-based Lindstrom and Almars and built for $40,000. The Franklin opened in May 1916 as a silent movie theater, complete with a live orchestra and seating for 1,000 people. In the 1970s and 1980s it devolved into an X-rated movie theater. More recently, the building housed an art gallery and performance space.
Williams said the building was structurally sound when PPL acquired it, but it needed a lot of work.
“It was basically a hollowed-out, large rectangle with a 40-foot ceiling,” Williams said. “The building itself was in really good shape in terms of its bones.”
The renovation project, designed by Minneapolis-based Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, will create large, flexible space for training, offices and life skills counseling.
St. Paul-based Flannery Construction is the general contractor.
As part of the renovation, PPL is adding a second floor within the existing building envelope, said Matt Soucek, PPL’s senior project manager. No major surprises emerged as crews tore up the existing space, he said.
The Franklin Theater project is the centerpiece of a $12.4 million capital fundraising campaign. Williams said the campaign has raised about $5.5 million raised so far.
Other funding sources include New Market Tax Credits, Sunrise Banks, the city of Minneapolis, and the U.S. Bank Community Development Corp., according to PPL’s website.
Williams said the capital campaign is expected to generate about $2 million for a working capital fund, which will provide upfront money for development projects. The fund will advance PPL’s plans to create another 800 affordable housing units during the next five years, he said.