By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The doors shut on the historic Trail Theatre in downtown St. Joseph back in 2007, but soon they will be reopening once more.
Owner of Mokaska Coffee Andy Montee alongside his mother and brother purchased the building in 2020 and are currently renovating the inside to open its doors again.
Montee says he has many memories of going to the Trail in its heyday with his mom and brother and those memories inspired him to reopen the theatre.
"It's something that I think a lot of people in this community have really great memories tied to it and I've been a part of kind of rebuilding the downtown St. Joe here and opening up my coffee business that I've been running for about five years now," Montee tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And, it seemed like this would be something that I think a lot of people want and would also kind of be a great addition to all the other stuff that's happening downtown."
Montee says people can expect many different things at the Trail when it reopens.
"We are definitely going to have movies, we are ordering a projector now and we're kind of just waiting for that to come in," Montee says. "But, there's also a stage that we built in front of the screen, it's quite large, and we plan on having live music there, concerts as well as theatre performances."
He says the Trail will also have an open bar providing a club venue space for people to hang out.
Montee says the theatre has already had an impact downtown, with people already calling to help however they can.
"Whether it's when we open wanting to put on events there or wanting to assist us in the renovations and getting it back open, I think this is something that can just kind of be a real jewel for downtown," Montee proudly says. "It's right across from the visitor's bureau and it's one of these just really iconic buildings that you drive past and it's hard to look away from it."
The hope is the theatre will be open later this fall. Montee says all he is waiting for currently is some equipment to arrive that will be part of the reopening.