Former Village Theatre Transforming Into New Town Hall East
A big $1-million renovation project is taking place in the middle of the Village of East Davenport.
The building that formerly housed the Village Theatre, 2113 E. 11th St., is being totally transformed into a planned Town Hall East, as co-owner Michelle Solis Russell is planning to open it in June as a community center.
“We’re going back pretty much how it was, only better,” she said recently. In an interview at the site Wednesday, May 6, Russell said the end use is “still quasi-unclear. I mean what we bought it for and what we plan to do with it is consistent. Which is, we didn’t buy it for a revenue stream; for us, it’s just a community space.”
She plans to rent it out for a wide variety of private events (like birthdays, weddings, receptions), and host live music, movies, and theatrical productions, but there will be no bar as Village Theatre had included, and they won’t have a liquor license. Private events that cater (with food and beverages) may be able to serve alcohol, she said.
Building co-owner Michelle Russell pictured May 6, 2026 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“We’re very philanthropic as a couple and we want to put on community stuff for different ages,” Russell said of herself and husband Jim (CEO of Russell Group), who co-own the place. “We want just a whole bunch of different variety of stuff. It will be for rent, for use. We’ve been like bombarded with people who want to run it for a birthday party or a reunion or a wedding or whatever. So that’s been super. We’re eager to get that going as well. I’m really, really excited.”
Partner of Russell Construction (founded by her husband Jim), Michelle oversees Russell’s Facility Management division, which manages more than $55 million in properties. Apart from the company, Michelle is president and CEO of an owner services consulting firm (Solis Russell Owner Services), strategically partnering with Russell on projects specializing in owner representation.
She and Jim (who together have 10 grandchildren and another on the way) have owned a home in nearby McClellan Heights since 2018, and in 2021, launched the Heights of the Era summer jazz festival in Lindsay Park, which had taken place during Bix 7 race weekend. Taking on the Village Theatre renovation (originally built in 1890 as a Turner Hall) is a longtime dream, Michelle said.
Michelle Russell stood at the building’s original floor logo (which stood for East Davenport Turners) in December 2024 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“We’ve been wanting for years to, since we moved. We’ve been in the neighborhood now for eight years and we’ve been wanting to invest right in the Village down here,” she said. “We’ve just been too busy to make it happen until this popped up like literally fell out of the sky. I mean, it couldn’t be a better location. It couldn’t be a better building. It couldn’t be a better use in our opinion.”
“We’ve had just a really fabulous embracing from just people sending emails. Like, it looks so good,” Russell said. “What are you doing? Like, what can we do there? And we’re excited.”
“I love the Village. I think at this age and stage of our lives, we’re trying to do less versus more,” she said. “We’re both workaholics and working 15 hours a day. I’d like to put some of that time into being here in the programming and the right staff and really even ourselves being a part of it, because, you know, we were just in Austin, Texas, for our daughter’s wedding this past week, and the energy of that town, I mean, it was full her community of friends that have come from all over the country to live there.”
“We want to give people a spot to come that you feel comfortable to meet new people and establish a new community of people that are good around you,” she said. “That’s probably the driving force for me of what I want to accomplish here.”
The building (which the Russells bought in late 2024) is getting a complete overhaul inside and out – with new green siding, new sound system, projector and screen, new cathedral ceiling (the old drop ceiling was removed and old beams are being restored), new electrical system, HVAC, and new windows (which may be replaced again), new black-trim canopy entrance, and will get new lighting (including several chandeliers) and five new restrooms (including one each upstairs and in the basement).
A view of the balcony from the ground floor (photo by Jonathan Turner).
Russell has the advantage of employing over a dozen workers from Russell Construction to do the renovations, which began in January.
“We’re very fortunate to have this crew and guys running it well,” she said. “And it’s unique for us as a construction company because while it is a commercial building, it feels like we want it to feel like a home in terms of like the vintage appropriate, the right decisions. Right now they just put in the windows and they’re not correct. So we’re putting in more historically correct ones.”
The interior drop ceiling was removed and the original beams are being restored (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“It is definitely an investment of love,” Russell said of the whole project. “And I know we feel extremely fortunate to be able to do that and not taking it lightly. We’ve got to do it right. Life goes so fast, and I’d like to look at this as leaving some kind of legacy.”
“We both are eager to get it open and get it filled up with people and work with the city on how we make better access to the Channel Cat,” she said of the nearby water taxi dock in Lindsay Park. “It’s getting some improvements right now, and the thoroughfare from there to here, in my opinion, could be improved.”
The original hardwood flooring will be maintained; it’s been covered during the work, Russell said. That includes the “ETD” logo in the middle, which stood for “East Davenport Turners” in honor of the original Turner Hall. The updated center will be branded as “THE” (Town Hall East).
Regarding her consulting firm, one of her first projects was working in 2014 with the city of Moline on the Q multimodal project, including the Element Hotel and planned Amtrak station, at 316 12th St., Moline. They coordinate development projects, right from the outset, representing the developer, assembling the necessary pieces of the puzzle. Her company is based in Chicago, and completed the Rosenwald block in the Windy City’s Bronzeville neighborhood.
New siding has been put on, and a new entrance will go on the renovated former Village Theatre, 2113 E. 11th St., expected to open in June as Town Hall East (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“That was probably my proudest moment,” Russell said of working on redeveloping a building in 2016 (which is the National Register of Historic Places), covering an entire city block between 46th and 47th, Wabash and Michigan into Rosenwald Courts, with 239 units of senior and family housing with a two-acre professionally landscaped interior courtyard.
Russell isn’t sure if Town Hall East will have regular open hours, but she wants to offer a comforting, chill place to hang out.
A view from the balcony during renovations, May 6, 2026 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“This Village is so good for that. You know, we want to be a good partner and just bring people down here and let them go shopping and have fun,” she said.
The last part of the project will be new landscaping in the green space in front.
Both Jim and Michelle believe in philanthropy, to give time and money back to the community.
A view of the former Village Theatre interior in December 2024 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“It’s different than like trying to hold on to it. I mean, we’ve been very, very blessed and we feel privileged to be able to make a difference and we want to everywhere we can,” she said.
“My personal opinion is have some skin in the game. Like, come here, and if we put on an event, be a volunteer for us and we’ll pay via donation to whatever your organization is,” Russell said. “To me, that’s like a win-win — raise awareness and dollars for the good things that are going on. We can be a conduit for that to happen.”
“Michelle Russell is a force of nature who does everything at a top-notch level, and we can’t wait to see what she has in store for this historic Village landmark,” Julie Keehn, treasurer of the Village of East Davenport Business Association and owner of Camp McClellan Cellars, said Friday. “We welcome her to the Village and are excited about the new possibilities she is bringing to our area.”
Michelle Russell and her husband Jim (partners in Russell Construction, which he founded) bought the 1890 former Turner Hall at the end of 2024 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.