The University of Missouri has purchased the Missouri Theatre for $3.7 million.
The purchase from the Missouri Symphony Society completed an agreement signed in 2011, in which MU would lease the property with an option to buy. The symphony will continue to use the venue for offices and performances.
Leasing and ultimately purchasing Missouri Theatre resolved MU’s lack of venue space for musical events. What’s more, because Jesse Hall Auditorium will be closed due to Jesse Hall’s closing for Renew Mizzou, Missouri Theatre will be a site of additional university events.
The purchase also looks to save MU tens of millions of dollars in construction costs.
Campus officials had proposed the construction of a building to house the School of Music that included a 1,200-seat concert hall, recital hall, practice rooms and faculty studios. Though the facility is still being planned, the theater purchase will significantly decrease the estimated construction costs of a concert hall within the performing arts center, said Michael O’Brien, dean of the College of Arts and Science. Nearly $60 million was allocated for the concert hall.
Missouri Theatre was built in 1928 and is on the National Register of Historic Places as Missouri’s only remaining pre-Depression movie palace and vaudeville stage.