balboa theater re-opens in january

the historic balboa theater has nearly completed its 26 million dollar renovation and will open in january with public shows jan 11-13. the grand opening will occur later that month. we walked by today and they're still working on the lobby and ticketing area.

it will be interesting to see how the renovated theater - which is listed on the national register of historic places due to its ornate interior design - will compete with two other very distinguished theaters downtown, spreckels and copley symphony hall. spreckels is the oldest of the bunch, having opened in 1912, while both balboa and copley (named the fox theater at the time) were opened in 1929 (incidentally, someone should compile a list of just how many buildings were completed in the last year before the depression in san diego). both are quite active with their bookings, so are there enough events to support three theaters of this size, plus the various larger nightclubs downtown (house of blues, 4th and b)?

for 26 million, it appears you can seismically retrofit the balboa and preserve much of its history. the link above has plenty of pics of the theater's interior; i'm excited to see how it merited its historical registry status. plus the location of the balboa, right there on 4th as you enter horton plaza, couldn't be any closer to the gaslamp action. just one more cultural resource in a downtown that keeps improving.