YNDC Buys Foster Theater, Weighs Options for New Use - The Business Journal


Determining a new purpose for a former adult theater on the South Side likely will be a lengthy process, said the executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., the building’s new owner.

 YNDC acquired the Foster Theater property at 2504 Glenwood Ave. on June 9, according to Mahoning County records. 

“This is going to be a fairly long process to figure out what to do with it,” said Ian Beniston. “It’s going to take time.”

YNDC paid $99,999 to buy the shuttered theater from Delores Barber of Youngstown, Beniston said, and received the keys Monday afternoon. The sale price was more than double the last appraised value of the property – $43,050, in 2017 – but he considered removing the property as a venue for X-rated movies “very important.”  

The theater was built in 1938 and reflected “very much of a modern style in terms of the sleek façade on it and all of the materials in the theater itself,” said Bill Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. 

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