ANDOVER, Ohio – At the front lobby of Showplace Event Center are three statues representing the virtues of faith, hope and charity.
Lynne Niemi, who owns and operates the event center, drafted the pale figures using repurposed mannequins and paper, paper mache and props – a cross to represent faith, an anchor for home and flowers for charity.
“I always thought that those three virtues are so important, so I wanted them to have a big part in my venture,” Niemi, of Andover, reflects.
Some 30-plus years after she and her husband at the time purchased the former theater building, she is preparing to sell the property, which she has operated since 2022.
Built in 1916, the structure at 33 Public Square was not in great shape in 1994, she acknowledges.
“When we first bought it, the building was ready to be condemned,” she recalls. She and her then-husband repaired the building’s roof and updated its electricals, then operated the property as a haunted house for about five years, which did very well, she says.
Then, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, insurance rates went through the roof. “For the six weeks we were open, it didn’t even pay for us to be open,” she says.
Niemi transitioned the property under a land contract to an entrepreneur who wanted to show movies in the space once again and did so for about four years, but the small town’s economics didn’t support the business. The contract subsequently was transferred to “a younger couple that wanted to give it a go,” but they encountered the same result.
REFURBISHED
After about eight years, the property “came back to me,” she says. Having remarried, she and her new husband undertook a renovation of the property and acquired an adjacent building that had been occupied by a restaurant. They worked on the property over the next few years through the Covid-19 pandemic, and opened Showplace in 2022.
Changes including removing the movie theater seating and leveling the flooring for tables and chairs. Balconies also were renovated and extended to provide tables and seating, and the projection room was converted to space that could be used for a bridal suite.
In peak years, the event center, which has about 4,000 square feet of bookable space, is booked nearly every weekend, except for the normal January lull, Niemi says. In addition, Niemi has staged events of her own at the venue. It is a popular place for large anniversary parties and other “substantial celebrations,” she says.
“It’s beautiful,” Lara Reibold, president of the Pymatuning Area Chamber of Commerce, says. “It is a great place for weddings, graduation parties and retirement parties. The sad part is we do not have a hotel within 30 minutes so when people gather and are drinking, there is not a close place to stay.”
ON THE MARKET
Now, at age 65 – Niemi’s husband is 72 – she is ready to retire, she says. Sometimes setting up for an event can take the entire week, so she often doesn’t have a day off during any given week. As well as operating the event center, she gives private music lessons and is music director at two churches.
“It’s just time to live some life and not be up here every weekend or during the week,” she says.
“She’s ready for that to be a thing of the past,” Alicia Angelo, a real estate agent with Platz Realty Group, which is marketing the property, says.
The property has about 4,000 square feet of usable space. A brochure by Platz Realty Group highlights its proximity to Pymatuning Lake, the lighting and sound systems, kitchen, new roof and upgraded heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems.
“It’s pretty interesting, these older facilities,” Niemi says. “If they could only talk of their history.”
Niemi is willing to train a new owner who wants to continue to operate Showplace as an event venue but also sees several potential ways to repurpose the space. Because the theater’s stage remains intact, it could serve as a venue for live music or dinner theater. Tables and chairs could be removed for slot machines or other games, and upstairs rooms could be used as office space.
“You do have the tall ceilings so a brewery could potentially come in here,” Angelo says. “This could be ideal for that.”
The venue also benefits from being located in a resort town. Pymatuning Lake, the state park and campgrounds are just a mile up the road, Niemi says. According to Adams, four million visitors come to the community every year.
Additionally, the building is next to a library with “a beautiful reading garden” where wedding parties often take photos, as well as other nearby spaces such as Public Square for ceremonies and outdoor photos. The cooking space that the restaurant used when it operated – which was stripped out when Niemi acquired the building in 2018 – could have a commercial kitchen installed.
“Whatever somebody wanted to do, it could transition to something else other than what we’re doing,” Niemi says.
“If somebody wanted it as an event center, all the decor goes with the building, and we have quite a bit,” Niemi says.
“Something for every season,” Angelo adds.
Pictured at top: Lynne Niemi stands inside Showplace Event Center, the 1916 building she helped transform into a 4,000-square-foot event venue.
