I love stories where people take old abandoned and almost forgotten landmarks in cities or towns and see the potential to bring them back to life again.

Just like this one. Rochelle's Hub Theater will become a vibrant part of the cities downtown once again.

According to this interview from WRHL, Mike McCarty, a former Rochelle resident now Florida business man, was given the green light by the cities officials to purchase two buildings downtown. The hub theater being one of the two.

Mr. McCarty plans for the the Hub Theater is to "redevelop it as a performing arts center and renovate the building in the 400 block of 4th Avenue. The 1st floor would be for restaurants while the 2nd floor will have offices and the 3rd floor for MCI Corportations, McCarty's company. He plans to have around 50 employees with an average yearly salary of around $50,000.

This makes me smile as I grew up around Rochelle. I've seen many great movies there like "Ghost", "Dances with Wolves", "Dirty Dancing" among other.  I hated to see that theater sitting there vacant and lonely, only to grow dilapidated and sad. That theater is a part of my memories. It makes me happy to know that Mike McCarty has visions to make it great again and help revitalize the downtown area of the Hub City.

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