Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
Jasper’s movie theatre will screen its last feature at the end of this month as it comes under new ownership and is slated to become a restaurant.
The Jasper Brewpub will take possession of the Chaba Theatre on Feb. 25.
“I’m bittersweet about it, is what I’d say,” said Dwain Wacko, who has owned and operated the Chaba Theatre since 1972.
“I’m sorry for the community that it’s losing the theatre, but I don’t see a way forward at this time for a cinema.”
The Chaba Theatre has a history in Jasper spanning nearly a century.
The original theatre opened its doors in 1928, with the Wacko family taking ownership in 1946 and a new twin theatre later replacing the old building in 1989.
However, while the pandemic had made operating a small-town theatre challenging, it had already become difficult to sustain in recent years due to dwindling attendance.
“The industry seems to be relying on the big titles,” Wacko said, noting that smaller titles were now going to alternative platforms such as streaming services.
“In a small situation like Jasper, there just isn’t enough of them to sustain us. There generally would only be three or four big titles that are hugely popular, and it’s not enough. We just don’t have a big enough population base for that to be enough.”
The property itself has a heavy tax burden due to the high demand for land in Jasper and thus the higher assessment values.
With these challenges, Wacko said he understood why the new owners couldn’t continue the theatre model.
He added how the business in the last few years hadn’t been successful enough to provide him with a comfortable retirement, whereas selling the real estate would.
“I’ve put off lots of things that I’ve wanted to do in my life to keep it going, and I just don’t feel like I want to wait any longer,” he said.
“And I don’t know, how long is it going to take to recover? I no longer want to wait for a possible recovery. I don’t know if it will happen.”
Socrates Korogonas, one of the local founders of the Jasper Brewpub, said he and co-founders Brett Ireland and Alexander Derksen all grew up in Jasper and how the Chaba Theatre had been a big part of their early childhood.
“It’s going to be incredibly sad to lose something like that from a community perspective,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the reality of the business model for cinema is kind of dwindling, and I don’t know what the future holds for small-town cinema, not just in Jasper but in a bigger context.”
Korogonas said they had been looking for a space to build a new restaurant for some time and decided to purchase the Chaba Theatre, noting how commercial space was scarce in Jasper.
“We’ve gone through the process of applying for a change of use for the space. We’re looking to add another complimentary restaurant, food-and-beverage establishment in that space. We’re also looking at a little retail space to go in there as well.”
The exact theme of the restaurant has yet to be finalized, nor has a timeline been determined for the renovations that will be required.
The Brewpub did research to see if a theatre could be incorporated into the business somehow but was unable to find a viable path forward for cinema in Jasper.
Korogonas said they are currently exploring options to see if the old equipment can be moved out of the Chaba Theatre and if screenings can be hosted in another location.
He added how they wanted this transition to yield something new and positive for the community.
“We don’t have any experience in the cinema business, but we would like to create something that (would) definitely help tell the Jasper story.”
