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State Theater awaits historic designation

News Photo by Steve Schulwitz The exterior of the State Theater in Alpena will be transformed into the old Maltz Theater once a large renovation project is completed. The owner of the building is waiting for the National Register of Historic Places to review a request to give the old theater a historic designation.

ALPENA — The demolition portion of the project that will lead to the State Theater in Alpena being returned to the historic Maltz Theater is nearly complete and the building’s owner says he is waiting for the old theater to be granted a historic designation by the National Register of Historic Places before resuming construction.

On Monday, Jeff Konczak said having the historical tag will help in his effort to preservice the nearly century old building and possibly create opportunities for funding, possibly from the State.

He said should the National Register not grant the historic status to the old theater, the project would still move forward as originally intended.

He said before the National Register certifies a building as historic, it must have original features and items in it, which Konczak said there are plenty of.

Konczak said while the interior of the theater was being dismantled, many portions of the old Maltz theater were revealed, which should make it eligible.

“You need to have enough historic fabric to be accepted, and once we began to open things up, we found a bunch of really awesome stuff,” he said. “This isn’t a process where you can jump the line, or come back later and do it. This whole process is like a game of dominoes where you have to knock one thing down at a time. People might not be able to see it, but I think we are doing things at break-neck speed.”

Konczak also owns the former Royal Knight Theater, which is in the process of reconstruction and will reopen as a movie theater once complete, and the former Vaughn’s department store, which he has rebranded as The Vaughn and renovating.

He said a great deal of work has already been done to the exterior of the building, but more work as needed. He said his goal is when the exterior work is completed, it resembles the original structure before it was altered when the movie theater opened.

Konczak said he has been working with contractors to find the best way to move forward with refurbishing the exterior of the building. He said the project is taking a bit longer than he anticipated, but said that is ok, because he wants to make sure when finished, the building on the corner of Chisholm Street and 2nd Avenue that fits in with the other old building downtown.

“We don’t want to put lipstick on a pig,” he said. “We want something special, even if it might take a little longer.”

Much of the work on the inside of The Vaughn has wrapped up and the exterior is already looking much improved. Konczak said although more work is needed, he has already begun talking to people who may want to utilize space in the large building.

He did not however share details on what is in the works.

“These things are very cool and I think people will be very happy,” he said.

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