Arthouse Houston closes on the Garden Oaks Theater, saving it from demolition
The River Oaks Theatre, the Garden Oaks Theater's sister cinema. Photo: WhisperToMe at en.wikipedia, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Garden Oaks Theater is staying. Arthouse Houston, the nonprofit that led the fight to save the River Oaks Theatre, closed this week on the 1947 Art Deco cinema on North Shepherd Drive, ending months of uncertainty over whether the building would be torn down.
The group closed on the $7.1 million purchase Tuesday, putting $2 million down on a seller-financed loan, it said in a release reported by the Houston Chronicle. Arthouse scheduled a news conference at the theater for Wednesday morning, and the Houston Business Journal reported the sale Thursday.
How it got here
The Garden Oaks stopped showing movies in 1994. Grace Church used it for years before moving out in 2025, and the property was then bought by a group called the Heights Investment Fund that planned to clear it. The theater’s tower sign came down in February.
Protests followed. Arthouse signed a contract to buy the property on Feb. 27 and, according to its campaign page, had a short window to raise the money or see the building demolished. The group credited Mayor John Whitmire and council members Mario Castillo, Abbie Kamin and Sallie Alcorn with helping broker talks with the developer.
Arthouse says it has raised $2.8 million since March from more than 900 donors in over 220 ZIP codes. Allison Sarofim and Patrick Seabase gave $500,000 as founding donors. Phoebe and Bobby Tudor pledged another $500,000 to name the grand lobby after Houston-born director Wes Anderson, whose July fundraiser screening at the Hobby Center brought in about $300,000.
What comes next
The plan is to turn the theater into an arts and film center with year-round screenings, live performances, film production studios, classrooms for all ages, gallery and co-working space for arts groups, and places to eat. The Chronicle reported the main auditorium will seat more than 700 people. Arthouse is aiming for a grand opening in 2028.
That will take a lot more money. Arthouse puts the full project, including the land, restoration and equipment, at about $18 million, and its release put the renovation cost at $18 million to $20 million. The group’s campaign page breaks out about $6.9 million for restoration, including the marquee, the neon blade sign, the staircase railing and original murals, and $4 million for equipment.
Arthouse also says it will apply right away for national, state and city historic designation. Those could open up tax credits covering up to 45% of eligible renovation costs, which the group estimates at as much as $1.8 million. The purchase contract requires the original tower sign to be returned, and Arthouse says the company that restored the River Oaks Theatre’s exterior is already evaluating it.
While construction is underway, the group plans drive-in movie nights in the theater’s parking lot.
A sister to River Oaks
The Garden Oaks was one of several postwar Houston theaters the Dallas firm Pettigrew & Worley designed for the Interstate circuit, including the River Oaks Theatre on West Gray. It sits on a 2.3-acre lot in one of the faster-growing parts of the near north side, close to the Heights, Oak Forest and Independence Heights.
Arthouse was part of the effort that kept the River Oaks open after its 2021 closure. That theater is now run by Culinary Khancepts.
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