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A former Taft High School basketball standout who plays pro ball in Japan and runs a concert promotion company in his spare time wants to spend $1 million to turn Over-the-Rhine's decrepit Empire Theatre into a concert hall.
"We want to renovate the entire thing," said LaShawn Pettus-Brown, who recently signed a contract to buy the Vine Street theater from Overthe-Rhine landowner Tom Denhart.
"We'd have something going on at least six days a week. Touring acts, comedy shows, open mike night, whatever," said Pettus-Brown. "Cincinnati doesn't have a place where there's something going on every night."
Pettus-Brown said be's talking to Fifth-Third Bank about financing the project, which he hopes to complete by year-end. A Fifth Third commercial banker Pettus-Brown identified as his loan officer did not return the Courier's call.
Pettus-Brown played at the University of Dayton as a walk-on in the 1994-1995 season. The school's...