Groundbreaking For Guadalupe Theater’s “Royal Makeover”
Jarrod Zinn
GUADALUPE, Calif. (KEYT) – The long anticipated restoration project at Guadalupe’s Royal Theater broke ground Monday.
The theater has been unused for nearly four decades.
It’s been closed and unused since 1989 and in 2022, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Originally built and opened in 1940 by Japanese American Arthur Fukuda, the Royal Theater gained initial popularity with locals and soldiers from Camp Cooke—which is now Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Fukuda was forced to sell the theater before he was sent to an internment camp during World War II.
“It really allows us to understand that the history of our buildings that are existing are really important,” says Andrew Goodwin, the project’s architect and designer. “They’re not only the most sustainable way to design, but they’re also the most equitable when it comes to culture and identifying the culture that exists today and hopefully will exist till tomorrow and the future.”
The City of Guadalupe has owned the property since 2000 and multiple previous attempts at reopening or revitalizing have not quite gotten this far.
“This is actually a unreinforced masonry building, so there’s a lot of engineering that has to go into it to reinforce it and make it exist again,” says Goodwin. “But the inside of the building is actually the original brick walls. The existing stage is going to be preserved in some ways. When you go inside and you see the lobby and you see the art deco or 1940s architecture and design, you’ll really appreciate that we kept it instead of getting rid of the history.”
A capital campaign effort funded by the federal Economic Development Administration, the California Art Commission and the City of Guadalupe broke ground Monday afternoon.
“This is a project that has been long in the making,” says Monique Limon, Senate President Pro Tempore. “So many attempts to try to find the funding, so many community members and efforts to really make it get some momentum.”
PreCon Industries of Santa Maria will give the theater a “royal” makeover, courtesy of Andrew Goodwin Designs of San Luis Obispo.
Construction will go into high gear next month and is expected to be completed in March.
The theater is expected to open its doors in 2027.
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