Third Street, the nonprofit led by Vegas Theatre Company and Vegas City Opera, has locked in a lease on a long-vacant downtown cinema and is getting ready to flip the lights back on in a big way. The plan is to transform the former movie house into a year-round arts incubator stitched together from performance stages, rehearsal rooms and media production spaces, aimed squarely at local artists, educators and small arts companies rather than the tourist crowd.
As reported by Las Vegas Weekly, Third Street has signed a lease for the former downtown cinemas at 814 S. 3rd Street and described the space as about 41,500 square feet. Commercial property listings for the same address show a larger overall footprint, roughly 54,932 square feet, suggesting Third Street will occupy most of the building (LoopNet).
What Third Street Will Include
The group’s early plans are anything but modest. The first phase calls for a 250-seat proscenium theater, a 150-seat black-box sound stage, multiple screening rooms, rehearsal studios, a 400-person event and rehearsal hall, and a full media and broadcast studio. “We’re not tearing down, we’re tuning up,” Third Street CEO Daz Weller wrote in the project release, leaning into the idea of adapting the old cinema instead of starting from scratch. Organizers say reusing the existing structure should speed up the timeline and keep costs lower than a ground-up build. Third Street details the venue mix and early staffing plan in its press release.
Who Will Call It Home
The new campus is being designed as a cooperative home base for local arts outfits. Vegas Theatre Company and Vegas City Opera are slated as lead resident organizations, with Laugh After Dark and the Las Vegas Sinfonietta listed among the planned partners. The project has also attracted some marquee backing: Teller of Penn & Teller is cited as a supporter, and Weller is leading the initiative. A profile in Desert Companion/KNPR offers additional context on Weller’s playbook and how the cooperative model is expected to work.
Education, Workforce And Funding
Organizers describe THIRD Street as both an incubator and a vocational training hub. The project prospectus says the campus will host classes and certificate programs in stagecraft, film, audio and streaming production, with coursework offered in partnership with the College of Southern Nevada. The business plan outlines an operating budget of roughly $5 million, built primarily on earned income such as rentals, ticket sales and media work, with philanthropy closing the remaining gap. THIRD Street lays out the education strategy and budget assumptions in its narrative business plan.
Timeline And Community Impact
Organizers expect to open portions of the building and begin some dual-enrollment classes in 2026, with an official venue launch targeted for 2027, according to Las Vegas Weekly. The same reporting notes early fundraising momentum, with more than $450,000 raised in the first phase as the nonprofit works toward a Phase One campaign to finish construction and launch programming. Project leaders say they want the campus to function as both a cultural anchor and an economic catalyst for the Arts District, creating paid training opportunities and rentable production space.
If the plan stays on track, a long-unused downtown cinema will get a second life as a working creative campus that supports performance, production and education all year long. Organizers keep coming back to one goal in particular: giving local talent a reason to build careers in Las Vegas by providing industry-ready training and regular paid gigs. Neighbors and arts supporters will be watching closely as fundraising, permitting and build-out move the project from concept to construction.
