Masonic Auditorium Poised for $8 Million Facelift Thanks to Owner Temple Live

Before Temple Live bought the Masonic Auditorium on Euclid Ave. in 2017, the brown behemoth of a building sat with its industrial counterparts, part of a camouflage of nondescript structures in Midtown.

Beaty Capital, a "family-run" investment firm based in Rogers, Arkansas, committed $6 million the following year to fashion the 225,000 square-foot, former freemason headquarters into a more hip spot on Cleveland's music circuit. A follow-up, phase-two renovation was planned for 2020, only to be delayed by pandemic woes.

Yet, after three years of waiting, the Masonic entered its latest phase of development, an $8.1-million overhaul of its sound systems, electrical and plumbing, its green rooms and its enormous roof. "It was at the edge of disaster," Lance Beaty, the owner of Temple Live, said.

And, after a century going without: air conditioning.

"It's a big deal. There's never been HVAC across the whole building," Temple Live's General Manager Garrett Zimmerman said, sitting on a leather sofa in his office. "I mean, who wants to come in and build a hotel in a building that doesn't have air conditioning?"
Zimmerman, a career show booker who often wears a cowboy hat in local music bars, is nodding to the ultimate end of the Masonic's lengthy renovation process: a 165-room Dream Hotel planned on the building's Euclid Ave. side, either hugging its north side, or built up inside its massive interior.

But first must come what Zimmerman calls "the bones" of the makeover: repainting and refurnishing the green rooms in the Main Hall or the Asylum Room; outfitting the Main Hall with a new JVL sound system; modernizing the Masonic's sterile production offices.

Then, with a bettered skeleton, revamping its visuals: updating its concessions, revitalizing its outdoor LED screens, maybe lighting up the overwhelming brown brick with more inviting colors. "Like, red and green for Christmas? Or all purple?" Zimmerman said. "I love the color purple for some reason."
Temple Live's concentrated effort to showcase the Masonic alongside its local competitors follows a near trend in Cleveland.

In 2018, after decades succumbing to its basement punk aesthetic, The Agora got a glittering $3-million re-do of its theater, lobby and bars. In June, Mahall's announced a conversion of its first-floor bowling alley into a 500-person venue called The Roxy. And this May, former Mahall's owner Kelly Flamos bought the long-dormant Variety Theater on Lorain Ave., vowing to resurrect its glam to fill a wide gap in the Southwest side's lingering venue scene.

"It’s dramatic," Beaty said in a phone call. "Taking a sad, sleepy, historic property, and doing a renovation at market [value]. Just the venue alone will be a state of the art facility compared with any facility in the country."

Beaty, who's vowed to put $14 million into the Masonic, said the overall aim is to fix up the venue's value as a destination rather than just an event center. By 2025, Beaty envisions concertgoers staying at the Masonic's hotel, maybe eating at its restaurant or brewery, rather than opting for Downtown accommodation.

His ideas echo what Cleveland Foundation chief Lillian Kuri thinks about the future of her building—about a minute drive east on Euclid—and its potential as a neighborhood hub. Kuri and team have plans for promenades, for neighbor parks and bike lanes outside their front door.

Beaty is still certain: a Dream Hotel, a potentially $40 million construction project, will lead to a similar effect.

"Five years from now, if you walked out you would not recognize where you are," he said.

Concurrent with its phase-two kickoff, the Masonic is at a kind of return to its pre-pandemic heyday in booking. National acts like the Violent Femmes and Anthony Jeselnik are included in the venue's busiest time for show workers in years: a six-day stretch with seven events to orchestrate. (Temple Live had only two shows in 2020.)

In late 2022, Zimmerman and Rob Thomas, the president of Temple Live Cleveland, helped open the Asylum Theater, a 500-person seater on the building's second floor the Masons used to purpose as a so-called ritual room. Moreover, earlier this year, the downstairs Jester Lounge, a former Mason mess hall, opened sporting underground DIY vibes, with muted violet lighting and kitsch-y dive bar.

The only problem, Zimmerman said on a tour Monday, is deciding exactly how to divvy up the renovation budget. Especially at a place like the Masonic, with its hidden rooms and trap doors, having such potential based on size alone.

"We've just got a lot of money," Zimmerman said, walking through the Asylum Room. "We're just trying to figure out the best way to spend it."

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