Reno’s newest arthouse cinema forced to close a week after opening
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from the city of Reno.
Reno’s first new arthouse cinema in decades is off to a rocky start after it closed one week after its grand opening.
Theater 42, which held its grand opening and first film screening last Thursday, Jan. 5, at its new home inside a renovated law office at 201 W. Moana Lane, had to close down due to unforeseen permit and licensing issues, owner Austin Lugo told the RGJ.
The biggest issue, according to Lugo, is that the theater failed to apply for a change of use permit.
“This means hiring an architect and drawing up plans,” Lugo said. “They are also saying we need a separate male and female bathroom (which I haven’t read the code on yet but believe you me I’m going to), and if that’s the case, we’re gonna have to do a whole lot of construction.”
The city of Reno stressed that it did not forcibly close Theater 42, which it said had opened illegally.
“We do support the reuse of existing buildings for all new city of Reno business,” said Chris Pingree, director of development services. “In this situation, processes were not followed and therefore this business owner was not issued a building license to operate.”
Pingree said that Theater 42 had applied for a business license on Dec. 19, and that the application was accepted and paid for on Jan 4. The city then reviewed the application within 24 hours of the payment but did not approve a business license. The cinema held its grand opening on Jan. 5, anyway.
Lugo told the RGJ he is yet unsure on the timeline but hopes, “in a perfect world,” that Theater 42 will reopen sometime in February.
“Honestly at this point it’s not so much a problem of paperwork as it is money,” Lugo said. “I mean, this could double our original budget for the project, which could take us near a year to get right.”
The news comes as a major blow to the 26-year-old Lugo and his team of fellow cinephiles, who pooled their entire life savings to rent the office after crowdfunding efforts for a grander project failed. Lugo originally had hoped to build a theater with 360-degree cameras throughout the space, allowing viewers from all over the world to watch films and interact with others in the cinema via virtual reality headsets.