Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and other city officials stood in the pouring rain on Wednesday to mark the ceremonial groundbreaking for the restoration of the Grove Theatre, a long-shuttered movie house on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway that has sat vacant for decades in the Grove Park neighborhood. The Grove Park Foundation has begun restoring the theater after acquiring it in 2017, when the building had already fallen into disrepair.
The project, pegged at $5.4 million according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is expected to open in late 2027. That figure differs from other estimates floated over the past year and a half: Urbanize Atlanta has described the renovation as a $5.5 million undertaking, while a separate Urbanize Atlanta report cited an Invest Atlanta estimate of $4.5 million, and Rough Draft Atlanta quoted a Grove Park Foundation spokesperson putting the total budget at $5.1 million. The reporting does not reconcile those differing figures, and timelines have shifted too — Rough Draft Atlanta previously reported that the foundation's executive director, Gavin McGuire, expected the center to open by the first quarter of 2027.
A Movie House Built for a Different Era
The Grove Theatre has an 85-year history behind it, having originally opened in June 1941 before shuttering in 1969, according to Rough Draft Atlanta's reporting on the project. The building then sat empty for decades until the Grove Park Foundation took ownership in 2017, inheriting a structure that the AJC describes as having fallen into disrepair by that point.
Once finished, the renovated space is planned to function as a flexible community venue for visual and performing arts, events, meetings and other gatherings, with seating for up to 300 people. The AJC frames the groundbreaking as a milestone in what it calls a nearly 10-year journey to revitalize the historic structure.
Funding From Banks, a Fast-Food Giant and City Coffers
Money for the project has come from a mix of private, public and philanthropic sources. Urbanize Atlanta reported that Bank of America and Chick-fil-A each committed $1 million in private funding to the effort, and separately noted that Invest Atlanta, the city's economic development arm, committed $830,000 toward the Grove Park Performing and Cultural Arts Center. The renovation has also been characterized by Urbanize Atlanta as a Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative project funded by philanthropy and Tax Allocation District development funds.
The theater work fits into a broader pattern of investment the Grove Park Foundation has pushed in the surrounding neighborhood, including affordable housing, health and education additions, and other economic boosters, per Urbanize Atlanta's coverage. In a related move, Invest Atlanta approved a $1 million forgivable loan, reportedly sourced from the Perry Bolton Tax Allocation District, intended to help the foundation acquire two additional properties on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway.
Differing Figures on Square Footage
Even the project's physical footprint has been described differently across reports. Urbanize Atlanta put the plan at 10,400 square feet of total leasable space, while Rough Draft Atlanta quoted a Grove Park Foundation spokesperson saying the project covers 10,000 square feet. It is not clear from the available reporting whether those two figures are measuring the same thing.
The Grove Theatre's revival also echoes past support for historic theater preservation across Georgia. The AJC previously reported that the Fox Theatre Institute awarded nearly $480,000 in grants to 13 historic theaters, 12 of them in Georgia and one in Alabama, with the Grove Theatre among the recipients at the time, receiving a $100,000 grant.
For now, the project's next milestone is construction itself, with city officials and the Grove Park Foundation treating Wednesday's rain-soaked ceremony as the formal start of turning the decades-dormant movie house into a working community space once again.
