A St. Louis classic has changed hands for the first time since the early ’90s, with two longtime tenants purchasing the Tivoli Building from Delmar Loop impresario Joe Edwards. One Family Church, which has been holding Sunday services in the 1924 building for about a decade, has bought the Tivoli Theatre and the first and second floors of the Tivoli Building, and Integrity Web Consulting has purchased the third and fourth floors.
Edwards bought and painstakingly restored the former silent movie theater and vaudeville show space and reopened it as a movie theater in 1995. He also owns other Delmar Loop mainstays like Blueberry Hill, The Moonrise Hotel, venues The Pageant and Delmar Hall, and the Pin-Up Bowl. With a vested interest in the character of the Loop, he wasn’t going to sell to just anyone.
Stay up-to-date with the local arts scene
Subscribe to the weekly St. Louis Arts+Culture newsletter to discover must-attend art exhibits, performances, festivals, and more.
In fact, he wasn’t really looking to sell at all.
“I didn’t put it on the open market,” Edwards says. “Two tenants who have been there about a decade each approached me, letting me know that they were interested in case I ever decided to sell it. Both of them are very vibrant and cool.”
He praised One Family Church for being an inclusive and welcoming nondenominational church and Integrity Web Consulting for prompting more and more new companies to move into the Loop—both ideal for the neighborhood, in his estimation.
“It’s the right thing to do for decades to come for the Delmar Loop,” Edwards says.
Brent Roam, lead pastor of One Family Church, is keeping mum on the deal until the details are hammered out but said in a statement that he is “excited for the opportunity to provide retail space for vibrant and growing businesses on the Delmar Loop, and reasonably priced, exciting, and socially relevant films for students, families, and film-lovers from all over the St. Louis region, while also providing passionate and life-giving church services on Sundays.”
In the same statement, Integrity’s CEO, John Simanowitz, says: “We are thrilled to build a permanent web innovation hub right here on Delmar. Institutions, startups and Fortune 500’s have realized true innovation requires diversity, culture, collaboration and community—everything Delmar is.”
The question on the mind of every St. Louis cinephile, of course, is “whither SLIFF?”
The Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival, while located at a variety of venues across the city, has long made the Tivoli Theatre central to its offerings.
“[Pastor Roam has] indicated that they still plan on using the facility as a theater,” says Cliff Froehlich, executive director of Cinema St. Louis. “The exact nature of the theater, who is going to run it, all of those issues are yet to be determined.”
While the details aren’t solidified yet, Froehlich said that Roam has indicated openness to continuing the relationship with SLIFF. He’s hopeful to still count the Tivoli as a SLIFF host, and even wonders if the festival might take over all three screens instead of the two it has been.
Landmark Theatres has long been the lessee of the Tivoli and has maintained a welcome focus on independent and foreign films, beyond the festival offerings. Despite likely leaving the Tivoli, the Los Angeles–based operation maintains a St. Louis footprint with six screens at Plaza Frontenac, which also hosts SLIFF screenings.
“We hope that we’ll be able to work out a deal,” says Froehlich. “We certainly don’t want to turn our back on the Tivoli. It’s an essential location for St. Louis filmgoers.”
A fall reopening is planned.
