City approves $4.2M to bolster downtown theater, arts campus

The city of Las Vegas approved more than $4 million in funds to revamp a downtown movie theater into a creative arts campus.

The Redevelopment Agency approved $4.2 million in reimbursement funds to Third Street Arts & Media Incubator during a Wednesday meeting.

The money will go toward the first phase of redeveloping the former Eclipse Theaters’ at 814 S. Third St. into a “home for performance, media production, education and workforce development,” said nonprofit Third Street in a press release.

CEO of Third Street Daz Weller said the funds are “a catalyst for bold new work, giving artists the platform to create and audiences’ new ways to experience the cultural richness of their own city.”

The $4.2 million is coming from the RDA Special Revenue Fund, which will help fund Phase 1A of the project.

The total estimated project costs for the first phase are over $7.4 million, according to submitted documents. The approved funds will reimburse more than half, with Third Street seeking “$3.3 million in complementary private capital,” said the press release.

During this phase, Third Street will transform two former cinema screens into a flexible studio theatre with around 250 seats. It will also include accessible public routes, concessions, restrooms, dressing and performer support areas and a new staircase connecting the upper levels, said the release.

The project will also offer workforce development with workforce training opportunities with University of Nevada, Las Vegas and College of Southern Nevada.

The first phase of the project is slated to have its grand opening in August 2028.

Internationally famous and locally active, Teller — of the magician duo Penn and Teller — is among Third Street’s backers and visionaries.

“This scale of space gives new artists a chance to be seen in the best possible light, with the best possible support,” he previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Now that Vegas is a real place with a growing arts scene, this is something we can’t afford to live without. The arts are not just a business or a decoration, but an essential infrastructure.”

What’s to come with the second phase of development is still underway, Weller confirmed to the Review-Journal, but the current phase brings the campus to 75 percent programming capacity.

The property has seen multiple movie theater iterations, starting with Eclipse Theaters opening in 2016, then Art Houz Theaters and finally Downtown Cinemas, which permanently closed in December 2025.

Contact Emerson Drewes at [email protected]. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.