Brent Johnsen knows that when a church sets up in a shopping mall, it’s often seen as a sign the retail center is on its last legs.

But at Richland’s Uptown Shopping Center, he and fellow business owners believe his congregation’s home inside the 76-year-old Uptown Theatre signals something else entirely – a revival, not a retreat.

EastLake Tri-Cities Community Church is now more than a neighbor. It recently bought the theater as well as five adjacent commercial spaces for $1 million from the estate of the late business owner and developer Warren Luke.

And that means EastLake Tri-Cities can truly make the Uptown its home and continue reviving an icon of Richland’s boomtown days.

“This is an opportunity for us to plant a flag,” Johnsen said.

EastLake Tri-Cities has been holding services at the theater for more than a decade and that’s led to more than just packing an otherwise empty parking lot on Sundays. Many of the church’s parishioners patronize nearby businesses.

EastLake also makes the theater’s former main screen room available for events ranging from fundraisers to concerts, providing needed space for performing arts and community groups.

“They’re great neighbors,” Dara Quinn, owner of Thai restaurant Emerald of Siam and Emerald Spark Events, told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. 

Finding a church home

The mid-century modern-styled Uptown Theatre opened as a single screen movie theater in 1950 and was on the southwestern corner of the Uptown Shopping Center at the time. 

Eventually the cafe that would become Kagen Coffee & Crepes and then Yellow Cafe along with four other retail spaces were built on the theater’s southern exposure. The theater last served movie-goers in 2006 when it was shut down by operator Regal Cinemas.

Johnsen’s familiarity with the Uptown didn’t start with EastLake; he grew up in the Tri-Cities and saw movies at the single screen-turned-triplex theater as a middle schooler. He returned to it as a pastor when EastLake, which Johnsen describes as a church for people who don’t like church, needed to find a new home after initially holding Sunday services at Southridge High School in Kennewick.

“Anytime you’re in a school, it’s meant to be temporary,” he said. “But coming to find church space is difficult.”

An initial attempt to lease the Uptown Theatre fell short as another business had plans for the space. However, Johnsen said that individual fell out with Luke, opening the door for EastLake to secure an initial five-year lease.

EastLake turned the main screen room into its meeting space while the two smaller screening rooms on either side were used for its youth programs. The church even leaned into the movie theater theme by offering free popcorn in the lobby on Sundays after services.

It also continued to rent out the theater when it wasn’t using it, with a staff member solely dedicated to coordinating and booking events. Johnsen said hosting events generates revenue for the church while also providing a venue it knows the broader community needs.

Pastor Brent Johnsen grew up going to movies at the Uptown Theatre. His church now owns the 76-year-old theater as well as several adjacent retail properties.

| Photo by Ty Beaver

Buying the property

Luke died in 2020 and Johnsen said his widow approached the church with an opportunity to buy it. But the Covid-19 pandemic stalled the deal and then a legal battle between Luke’s heirs further complicated the situation, Johnsen said.

Until the church bought the property, it held a month-to-month lease for 18 months, putting tension on its continued future there and making it difficult to make commitments to rent the space to other groups months in advance.

The church put half the money down, thanks to savings it had built up over the years and financed the rest via a loan from HAPO Community Credit Union.

Even with a pending purchase, there were challenges. Inspections led to the discovery of the theater’s former heating oil tanks buried under the storefronts facing Williams Boulevard. And one of them still had 4,000 gallons of fuel in it. Those tanks had to be inspected, drained and secured before any sale could proceed.

“There’s been a ton of hoops to jump through to get here,” Johnsen said. “But we love the Uptown.”

Bringing in business

Neighboring businesses said they feel the same love for EastLake. Quinn said the Emerald of Siam has welcomed overflow business from the church, either from parishioners or those coming to one of the events being held there.

“We have a great relationship with them,” she said. “And we’ve rented it for some of our events and we’ve done some catering for them.”

Gus Sako, vice president of the Uptown Business Owners Association and owner of Octopus’ Garden and Luna Fish stores, said he also knows of study after study showing churches becoming tenants in commercial developments is often a death knell for those developments’ prosperity.

But he agrees that EastLake has brought traffic to the Uptown while being an outstanding neighbor.

“They’ve been a huge asset,” Sako said. “They came in with a real community mindset.”

Photo by Nathan Finke

Improvements ahead

Johnsen said that while finally having the theater’s deed in hand is a relief, now the church really has to roll up its sleeves.

Part of the terms of the loan with HAPO was that it must put a new roof on the building, which itself is a replacement after it collapsed in the 1980s, leading to the theater being redesigned to its existing triplex setup. It also must install new HVAC units. EastLake has contracted with Black Diamond Roofing and Air Tech to complete the work.

The church has signed Yellow Cafe and dog groomer Puptown to new leases and is now working to renovate the three empty storefronts. It will lease two of those retail spaces while retaining one to support its youth programs. Some improvements are also being undertaken in Yellow Cafe’s space.

EastLake also is looking to freshen up the theater’s signature facade and has hired Kennewick architecture firm Evolv Design Collective. Johnsen said the goal is to keep the building looking like a classic mid-century movie theater.

But he did say that the fountain featuring bronze dolphins, likely installed during Luke’s ownership, will not be retained.

“We had people throwing odd things in there and ruining our pumps at $250 each,” he said.