A long-shuttered theater is expected to finally reopen to the public before the end of 2022, with hopes of bringing live performance and revitalization to Edinburg’s downtown area.

It comes after Edinburg-native Nick Cantu moved to purchase the building from attorney Felipe Garcia for an undisclosed amount of money. 

“The Citrus Live” is the name of the new business operating out of the theater.

"This was a very long process,” said Renee Sanchez Leal, director of operations for The Citrus Live. “By the time we closed about a month ago, we had already done all of our background research — we already knew what the trajectory of this project was going to be … we are hitting the ground running with this project and moving forward.”

With expectations to begin construction as early as the next two or three weeks, The Citrus Live’s website said the redesigned space will soon be able to host a variety of entertainment events, describing itself as a “first-class, premier, indoor- multipurpose center for the Rio Grande Valley.”

Renovations to come include extending the Citrus’s stage to accommodate larger concerts and having modern air conditioning features installed, opposed to refrigerated air.

"We can blend 20th-century charm with 21st-century amenities and because of that, I think we're the right people for this job,” Sanchez Leal said. “Inside, we can blend those two qualities so that when you walk through the doors, you know that you're stepping back into time — but the lighting is LED, the sound system's not from 1939… We want you to feel like the nostalgia is still there, and so we want to pay homage to the history of and legacy of the citrus theater — I just keep kind of saying, ‘We're just gonna give her a little facelift.’”

The much-needed improvements come as The Citrus Live had just recently wrapped up their Farewell Tour, which gave as many as 500 members of the public the rare opportunity to experience the theater in its current state one last time. 

Sanchez Leal helped with the tours — many of which came with a bit of emotion. She mentioned an interaction she shared with one woman.

“She said, I just want to go up on the second floor and look at the seats that I sat in with my husband on our first date — I lost him four years ago, and I had my first date with him — my first kiss, he proposed here — everything — the Citrus meant everything to her story, and we got to share that with her,” Sanchez Leal said.

Those interested in supporting The Citrus Live can purchase tickets to their grand reveal event that is tentatively set for December. Chairs from their first floor are also being sold both as-is and reupholstered. 

For more information, contact The Citrus Live via their Facebook page, or call (956) 595-1152.