“Coming soon.” Those words, once heralding upcoming shows beneath the marquee at the Georgia Theatre, and the four-brick-thick walls on which they’re mounted, are about all that’s left of what was the premier musical venue in this part of Georgia, perhaps second only to Atlanta’s Fox Theatre in the entire state.

On a December Wednesday, as workers install the last steel reinforcement girders amidst blustery winds, building owner Wilmot Greene sits across the street at the Globe and speaks about the June 19 early-morning fire that gutted the Theatre and his guarded optimism for the 120-year-old structure’s renaissance: “coming soon.”

To realize that rebirth as not only a musical stage but also as a restaurant and fully functional club, Greene is looking at a $3 million investment. That’s on top of the $1.3 million Greene received from the insurance settlement, which covered slightly less than what he owed the bank on the property he purchased in October 2004.

“You assume it will allow you to build it back for what you paid,” Greene says of the amount of insurance he carried on the property. The reality, however, is that the building was built in 1889, and Greene has to figure in today’s construction costs, updated infrastructure and federal mandates such as those outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act. “The whole money thing is—the insurance is for ‘rebuilding costs.’ We can rebuild what was there, but if we did that, it would be illegal. We couldn’t open the doors.”

For instance, the new Georgia Theatre will have 33 toilets. The only place for that many is in the old basement, which previously was used only for storage. There will be an elevator. Also new will be a three-tiered balcony on the mezzanine and a rooftop dressing room, office and restaurant featuring Chef Ken Manring of White Tiger Gourmet. “We used to be in a band together,” Greene says. “The cool thing is, and it’s kind of ironic: we’re going to smoke all our food. We’ll offer smoked chicken, pork and tofu” in sandwiches, wraps and salads.

“I’m not building it excessively,” Greene says. “I’m building it back to the minimum, but with some additional revenue streams possible. The restaurant and bar on the roof could be profitable on days when there are no shows.” It’s an expensive venture. “We’ve spent more than $200,000 just stabilizing the walls and for cleanup,” he says. “Insurance doesn’t pay for all that. I own the brand and the good will—it’s all the additional stuff that makes it expensive.”

In the six months since the fire—its cause was ruled undetermined but arson was ruled out—Greene suffered and grieved much like someone reeling after receiving news of a terminal illness. “At first I was just so devastated,” says Greene, who turned 39 one month after the fire. “For weeks there were so many tears; running around in circles; freaking out. The first three weeks I have no memory. I didn’t sleep for six weeks.”

The settlement was a lot of money, especially for a guy who has never taken a vacation. “That would go a long way in Costa Rica,” he says. The land on which the shell remains is valuable. “I could sell the dirt and walk away.” Greene weighed the pros and cons: “I worked 15-hour days, and when you have sold-out shows, like 20 great nights a year, it’s obvious everybody loved this place. But that’s not very often. The rest of the year you’re struggling to pay the bills.”

Then, the intangible values began mounting. “I thought, that’s been my home [since] long before I bought it. All my college memories are from here. And it was obvious the community wanted to bring it back, and that was kind of surprising to me.”

Greene says the Theatre was rife with stigmas when he purchased it five years ago. “It was a shithole. There was always great music, but the place was not nice at all. The bathrooms were ridiculous. If you were in the Theatre and you had to pee, you just left.” Greene laughs at the recollection of a student urinating in her purse rather than use the toilets. “There was another rumor that the beer made the drinker sick because of dirty draft lines. I was struggling to fight all that.” He says his profits went right back into renovations. “It was easier to list the things I hadn’t fixed than list the things I had.”

Greene is giving himself until March or early spring before approaching the bank for a loan. By that time, he says, he’ll know how fundraising has gone. To date, about $130,000 has been raised. He believes he will be all right if he can come out borrowing about what he was carrying before: about $1.5 million. That means raising at least $1.5 million.

Greene knew he needed help organizing the theatre’s rebuilding efforts when benefit concerts cropped up immediately after the fire and he had no legal means of accepting charitable gifts. That’s where the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation in Atlanta stepped in and set up a foundation for donations earmarked for the theatre's reconstruction. “I can’t buy beer with that money, but I can buy screws, concrete and steel,” Greene says.

“We took a group of staff members to review the situation, and they had valid historic goals, and the building was very important to downtown Athens,” says Georgia Trust President and CEO Mark C. McDonald.

McDonald says the Georgia Theatre is “located among a group of historic buildings that take up half a block of downtown Athens. It’s one of the most intact college town blocks in America.”

He cites four reasons the Georgia Trust could back Greene’s efforts: “The block offers a rich tapestry of locally grown businesses and restaurants and music; the second reason is the building is important; the third is the cultural heritage is important to the musical history of our state; and the fourth compelling reason is, if we didn’t act, there was a significant chance we would lose that building and there might be a huge, gaping hole in the middle of downtown.”

McDonald says the trust ensures “any donation goes to the rebuilding of the Georgia Theatre, which is a public purpose because it preserves Georgia history.”

The Georgia Trust executive, who graduated from the University of Georgia, has a soft spot for the theatre because of his friendship with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck: “I was there in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, at a pretty good time, I think. We were on the same freshman floor. I was exposed to [R.E.M.] at an early time.”

Greene has spent months working with Davis Architects of Birmingham and with city planners. He is excited by future plans. “I think the people are going to be impressed. It’s pretty fucking cool. Scott [Orvold], my manager and I have been going out to the tennis courts the past four months and chalking things out—making sure there’s enough space between the bar, things like that. We were limited by the footprint of the building, but we came up with a really cool design.

“We made it similar to the old theatre; we’ll have the old swooping curtains; the stage will be where it was, the bar roughly where it was; the balcony will be significantly better and the bathrooms significantly better.” The theatre's old dressing rooms, he says, “were pretty much the worst in the country. If there is a blessing to this, it’s that we’ll have decent dressing rooms.”

Greene says the loss of the theatre caused him deep despair and depression, but there is good news on that front, too. “My personal life is really in great shape,” he says. “Everybody owes Susan (Chase) a debt of gratitude” for keeping him on a steady keel. “We had dated a long time ago, and the fire brought us together again.” Greene also got a puppy, named Muddy, from the shelter. “I’ve wanted a dog so bad.”

It’s all been part of his recovery. “At first, when I read online comments about me being a bad businessman, I thought, ‘Are they right?’ But I did what I was supposed to do. The funny thing is, people assume because I own the theatre that I’m a millionaire. Unfortunately, it’s not like that.”

Greene met with county commissioners last week, and the commission set its first meeting in January to vote on an easement for a fire escape in back of the theatre. “That’s the last part to be approved,” Greene says.

He hopes to have a grand re-opening on New Year's Eve, 2010. “I’m putting myself through a lot of shit. It’s not making a lot of financial sense to me, but honestly, I think it’s the right thing to do. Good things will happen. That’s the way I have to think.”

Cathy Mong

To make a tax-deductible donation to the reconstruction effort, send checks to the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, 1516 Peachtree St. NW, Atlanta, GA, 30309, and write on the memo line: Georgia Theatre. To donate online, go to www.georgiatrust.org/preservation/georgiatheatre.php.