Renovation and upgrading work may begin later this spring on a building that for years has housed a popular theater in Las Cruces.
Located at 1005 El Paseo Road, the Allen Theaters Video 4 building opened as a twin theater in early 1972 before later being converted into a four-cinema offering in the mid-1980s.
In many ways a victim of the Covid 19 outbreak in March of 2020, the building was closed within weeks of that outbreak, and finally ceased operations for good in October of that year.
Now the Boys and Girls Club of Las Cruces has announced plans to purchase the structure, moving out of the group’s one-story 6,800-square-foot structure at 330 West Las Cruces Avenue that it has occupied since 1965.
The former movie house will provide the club with 30,000 square feet of space. Club officials have said that a renovation of the structure will include the building of a modern science, a technology, engineering, and mathematics lab, as well as art facilities, a gymnasium, and separate wing for teen members.
The club used nearly $1.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding earlier to purchase the theater. The original asking price of $1.5 million for the structure was lowered by the Allen family, long-time owners of the theater and supporters of the Boys and Girls Club.
By Garry Boulard
