by Kent Brockwell
Staff Writer
Off-the-cuff comedy is coming to downtown.
An improvisational comedy group, improvjacksonville is planning to open a 125-seat comedy theater near Hemming Plaza.
Gary Blevins, sales manager for improvjacksonville, said the comedy group has leased the 10,500 square-foot basement of Park Place at 140 W. Monroe St.
Blevins said he and the troupe are excited about the new West Monroe Street location.
“We have a great deal here,” he said. “We have a great location. We are perfectly positioned.”
The theater will feature a brand of comedy similar to the television program “Who’s Line is it Anyway?” Blevins said.
“This will be something this city has never seen before,” he said.
Blevins said they will draw their audience from a 20-mile radius, focusing especially on Riverside and Arlington.
“It will be a great diverse audience,” he said.
Once opened, Blevins said the location will not only include the comedy theater, but will also feature a corporate wing of private offices available for lease. The offices are being targeted toward creative professionals such as architects, he said.
Both the theater and the corporate wing are scheduled to open in mid-September, Blevins said.
Though they currently have no Super Bowl plans for the location, Blevins said renting the location during that week could be an option.
John Bryan, one of the four partners involved with the new location, said renovations, which will include new fixtures and electronic components for the theater, will run about $75,000.
Bryan said the partners asked about City aid for the project but were shunned from the process.
“We were told that it would be very difficult (to get funding) because we weren’t on East Bay Street,” he said, “so we did it ourselves.”
Though the renovation project was delayed approximately two weeks, Bryan said he is looking forward to the mid-September opening.
“We are tremendously excited about being in the downtown business scene,” Bryan said.
The comedy group, which also specializes in corporate training, originally looked for property on East Bay Street in the new Bay Street Town Center project, but was detoured by higher rents in that area.
The cash investment for a location on East Bay Street was “huge,” Blevins said.