Former Danbarry theater on Hamilton’s West Side available for development after recent purchase

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Area native Todd Helton has gutted the former Danbarry Cinemas building on Hamilton’s West Side and is looking for one or more tenants – preferably a restaurant and microbrewery – to occupy the 24,000-square-foot space.

Helton is a real estate agent with Sibcy Cline Realtors who has his office in Kenwood. He purchased the long-unoccupied, 10-screen building recently for $125,000 plus the promise he would honor a contract with the company that had been hired to gut the building.

“We’ve got everything gutted out of the building,” he said. “We’ve got the roof leaks fixed. All the theater stuff’s gone, all the old yucky stuff. You can’t box up a building for 10 years without it having issues, so we’ve been able to get past all those issues at this point, and now that it’s wide-open space, now we’re ready to show it.

“It has a mezzanine halfway down the building, and it has 28-foot ceiling height, so it actually has the availability to have a second floor, or an upper-level mezzanine area, something like that. There’s some cool things that can be done with it.

“If we do land a brewery or something like that, it’s got plenty of ceiling height for those big vats that they brew in.”

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Helton grew up in Millville and now lives in Ross. He’s a 1982 Badin High School graduate.

“There’s just not that many buildings on that side of town with that kind of space in it, so it’s a really nice opportunity,” he said.

He, like others, is bullish on Hamilton’s future with the planned December 2021 opening of Spooky Nook Sports Champion Mill, which is prompting a number of business openings in the city.

He’s not looking to build out the project himself, “but I can definitely work with them from the rent side of things to get them in and running,” he said.

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Given the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, he’s willing to work with potential tenants on the rental rates, he said: “It’s going to be a commitment between me and them that we want them to get up and running, and be successful.”

Helton is working with his daughter, Taylor Helton, a recent Ohio University graduate on the project. He can be contacted at 513-478-7615 or thelton@aol.com.

SERVPRO, a company that restores buildings from mold, or after fires or water damage, bought the building and planned to use it for their business, but that didn’t work out. He was going to represent them to sell the property.

“I was looking at selling it for them, when I ended up just making them an offer to buy it,” he said.

About the Author