Construction fencing has been erected around 5035 Broadway, marking the beginning of construction on TimeLine Theatre Company’s long-awaited, $46 million new home centered on a 250-seat theater. Opening is anticipated in the spring of 2026.
The Tribune first reported TimeLine’s $2.69 million acquisition of a 110-year-old former warehouse storage building in 2018. At the time, TimeLine’s plans called for a $20 million project, including a 250-seat theater built south of the main building in a vacant lot, and a separate 150-seat venue carved inside the warehouse. Not only has the cost more than doubled, but plans now call for just the mainstage black-box theater, along with a bar and cafe on the first floor, as well as lobby space for exhibitions and for educational and informal programs.
Further, there now are no current construction plans for the lot south of the theater, currently being used as a staging area by the Chicago Transit Authority, although owned by TimeLine and potentially available for future development. And instead of building a theater inside of the warehouse, TimeLine now will demolish the front of that building. The new venue will be built with a precast concrete facade from the ground up, with office space, dressing rooms and production support facilities housed in the remaining rear section of the original building.
A large existing parking garage is located virtually next door to the project, which is located close to existing venues like the Riviera Theatre, the Aragon Ballroom and the (still unrestored) Uptown Theatre. Chicago has been talking for years about investing in what has been deemed the Uptown Entertainment District.
“We want to be as open, transparent and accessible as possible,” TimeLine co-founder and artistic director PJ Powers said in an interview in Friday, noting that the public space will be on the ground floor with the theater located on the second level. “And we’re leaning into the idea of the audience arriving early and staying late.”
Mica Cole, the theater’s executive director since 2022, said that she wants the new venue “to be a resource for the Uptown community.” Both the bar and cafe and the exhibit space will be open to the public, whether or not they’re seeing a show.
TimeLine, which specializes in plays with historical themes, was founded by graduates of DePaul University’s Theatre School some 25 years ago and has worked mostly in rented space in Lakeview. Its prior home was inside the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ (now Chabad East Lakeview) at 615 W. Wellington Ave. TimeLine’s longtime search for a dedicated theater of its own included a long-ago plan to move to the Three Arts Club, as well as an aborted attempt to strike an agreement with a developer working on the former Trumbull School in Andersonville.
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Board chair Thaddeus J. Malik said TimeLine, which has an annual budget of about $2.5 million and 14 staffers, had acquired all the necessary permits and approvals and confirmed that construction has begun.
“I’m excited because of what it means for the community and the theater,” Malik said. “I’m nervously excited. This is a large project. But I don’t know any organization that does more with less than TimeLine. Every dollar that is spent is put to good use.”
Financing comes from a variety of sources, including $10 million in TIFF money from the City of Chicago and a $2.9 million grant from the State of Illinois. There has been some foundation support, including from the Chicago-based Pritzker Traubert Foundation. But the majority (some 70%) of the roughly $40 million TimeLine says it already has raised is coming from individual donors with, Powers said, nine donations running to seven-figure amounts.
“There are a lot of very generous TimeLine enthusiasts,” Powers added.
“This can be the people’s theater,” Cole said, “in the most diverse neighborhood in the city.”
Update: This story has been changed to correct the name of the Pritzker Traubert Foundation and details about the former Trumbull School.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
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