If the renovation of the old Palace Theater were a Hollywood film, it would be a classic redemption story. Upstanding local citizen falls upon hard times. Takes a few knocks, and stumbles. Endures a season of despair. A kindhearted stranger offers words of encouragement and a hand up. The struggling hero rises. Our protagonist goes on to achieve greatness.
In its earliest iteration, the Palace Theater was one of the first cinemas in the Charlotte area with stadium seating. Built in 1998 in Cornelius, a suburb north of the city, the Palace featured a dozen screens and anchored one end of a mixed-use development. When competition grew fierce, the Palace was shuttered, and fell into disrepair along with the rest of the flagging development. With limited business and too much empty space, the complex began to attract the kind of undesirable activity that made the police dread calls from the address.
