WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) – The Hale Centre Theater’s move from West Valley City to Sandy will be bittersweet, according to season ticket holders.
Rob Brough, Chairman of the Hale Center Theatre’s Board of Trustees said he is very excited about the move.
The new location for the theater will be on an 11 acre lot between Sandy City Hall and I-15. It will have a larger stage and seat over 1,800 people.
Boyd and Kris Udy from Tremonton are season ticket holders who come to play because their son is the set designer. They are both sad and excited about the theater’s upcoming move to Sandy.
“It’s kind of bittersweet, but this building is so beautiful and what they do in this small space is amazing,” Kris Udy said.
West Valley City worked hard to keep the theater. City Manager Wayne Pyle said the city regrets the Hale Centre’s decision to leave, but they are looking forward to the future.
“Of course we would like them here, but they don’t define the area,” Pyle said.
Pyle is not entirely convinced the Hale Centre Theater’s move to Sandy is final.
“As the old saying goes there’s many a slip between here and there,” he said. “They’ve got a long hard process to go in terms of being able to get their finances together, engineering, design and all of those sorts of things.”
The theater needs to raise funds for construction, which is schedule to take place between 2014 and 2015. The theater hopes to break ground in January 2017.
Matt Hunter has brought his daughter Claire to the theater’s West Valley City location since it opened in 1985.
“Every seat is close to the stage,” he said. “You feel very close because there is only eight or nine rows.”
Hunter is sad to see the theater leave West Valley City, but hopes the new building in Sandy will be successful.
Bough said West Valley City has been a great home. The contract between the city and the Hale Centre Theater is set to expire at the end of December 2016.
