Developers and curious onlookers gathered at the steps outside Norfolk’s Circuit Court May 28. The building provided shade from the mid-morning sun, though the air was already sticky. At 11 a.m. sharp, bidding for the historic Riverview Theater started at $450,000.
Richard Lavin owned the theater — located at 3910 Granby Street — in the 1990s. It sat empty for decades. He said he got a few offers from developers, but declined them all because they wanted to tear it down.
“I wasn’t going to do it on our watch,” he said.
Lavin eventually sold the theater in 2023. One of the buyers was John Childers, co-owner of MJ’s Tavern down the block from the theater. He shared Lavin’s vision to restore the theater and originally planned to reopen it as an event venue in 2024 — then in 2025, and then in 2026.
News reports show the project struggled with funding when an investor pulled out unexpectedly and construction costs skyrocketed. Debt added up and the dream crumbled.
“My only regret is not being able to complete the project, and I hope whoever takes over the theater next will do so and make it a vital part of our community,” Childers told WHRO over the phone after the auction.
The auction lasted four minutes. Lavin ended up outbidding two real estate developers, buying back the theater — and adjacent buildings on the strip — for $600,000.
Though the property changed hands when Lavin sold the property to Childers and his partners a few years ago, Lavin was still involved. Instead of getting a loan through the bank, Childers and his partners financed their investment through Lavin and owed him $797,000.
“I had to protect myself,” Lavin said, adding there’s no bad blood between him and Childers. “I didn't even want to auction it.”
But he also didn’t want to see it fall into the hands of a developer with intentions to demolish it. He said the Riverview Theater offers what the Naro brings to Ghent.
“You bring in 300 people, 400 people, on a Friday night or Saturday night, and they go out and have dinner and spend money, so it made a big difference,” Lavin said. “Plus, the Riverview has tremendous history. It's a piece of Norfolk. It really is.”
The Riverview Theater originally opened in 1926, showing films and hosting live performances, according to the theater’s website. It hosted jazz icon Duke Ellington and his orchestra in the 1940s and played “The Sound of Music” for 115 weeks in the 1960s. Old Dominion University’s theater program called the theater home in the 1970s, and the venue hosted bands Def Leppard and Quiet Riot in the 1990s.
Tom Kirsch is co-owner of the Village Mermaid, which is located a few doors down from the theater in a building included in the auction. He was at the auction to see who would become his business’s landlord — and what might happen to the theater.
“I went to movies there when I was a child, so I want to see it come back,” he said.
Lavin said he’s too sick to reopen the theater himself. He plans to sell it and hopes an angel investor will bring the theater back to life.
