Rutland’s Paramount Theatre is undergoing a $6 million expansion into the next door Richardson Building. Eric Mallette, the Paramount’s executive director, says planning for this project began six years ago, and it’s exciting to see construction crews finally stirring up dust.
The Paramount has owned the red bricked Richardson Building for years, but Mallette says it’s been underutilized. Constructed in the 1880s, he says it offers 16,000 square feet of usable space on four floors.
He says they plan to use the first two floors to expand the Paramount Theatre’s lobby, restrooms and concession areas, both on the main floor and balcony. “That’s important in a space that invites almost 1,000 people to it on any given night,” adds Mallette.
A new elevator will be installed, which will improve accessibility, and the Richardson's third and forth floors will be turned into private event space which Mallette says is in short supply in Rutland.
“There is a lack of available space in our community that has a multi-use sort of feel to it,” says Mallette, admitting, “I'm hesitant to ever call it a conference space, because I think that that starts to sort of pigeonhole it into one very specific idea. We are designing this space very much with the idea in mind of versatility.”
Mallette says the work will be done in phases so as not to disrupt performances at the theater. If all goes according to plan, he says construction will finish in 2026.
Right now, he says the theater welcomes anywhere from 65,000 to 75,000 people annually. “We're going to grow that. By the conclusion of this project, we expect to grow to 100,000 people a year.” What’s especially exciting, says Mallette, is the potential to see a new hotel built across the street.
Efforts to develop a downtown hotel have gone in fits and starts for years, but Rutland Mayor Michael Doenges says despite a number of costly hurdles, plans are progressing for a proposed 99-room hotel on the corner of Center and Wales streets.
Doenges says Belden Construction hopes to build on the site of the former Berwick Hotel, which burned down in 1973. Costs to clean up the site, however, have ballooned from $500,000 to $5 million, which the mayor says has been a challenge.
“Most of it's due to the transport of the contaminated soils to this one particular landfill in the Midwest that takes those types of contaminated soils," explained Doenges. "I mean, digging a hole and moving the soil is easy. Moving it to the only landfill this side of the Mississippi that can, that can take it, that's the expensive and hard part. So that’s a big push.”
Besides hotel rooms, the proposed building also include 26 apartments, which the mayor says are also sorely needed. Doenges says a small group of local officials are meeting with the developer every two weeks to keep the plans on track.
At the same time, he says the city has been moving forward with plans to redesign and beautify Center Street and upgrade water and sewer infrastructure underneath. If plans are approved and funding falls into place, he says the street improvements could be completed by 2027.
“When you look at the combination of the Paramount, the hotel and the city’s ongoing efforts to redesign and beautify Center Street, you know, to have them all culminate and complete around the same time would be amazing," says the mayor, "and there's a real potential for that too.”
The changes that are coming are palpable. You’re going to feel a very different, very positive downtown Rutland, and that’s something I think the rest of the state really needs to pay attention to.Eric Mallette, Paramount Theatre executive director
“There’s a lot of forward motion in Rutland right now," agrees Eric Mallette. "So it is our hopes that, while the projects may not conclude simultaneously in a very short period, they will all be able to celebrate one another's success.”
"The changes that are coming are palpable," says Mallette. "You’re going to feel a very different, very positive downtown Rutland, and that’s something I think the rest of the state really needs to pay attention to.”
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