The Chief Theater in downtown Steamboat Springs sold in late-September, but the new owners have yet to reveal their plans for the theater, which at the time of its construction was touted as the largest in Northwest Colorado.

According to the Routt County Assessors website, the property listed at 811 Lincoln Ave. sold for $2.1 million to TCS Holdings LLC on Sept. 24. The deal was recorded on Sept. 30.

The building’s history dates to 1926 when it was built by Mark Schafermeyer, who owned the property and deeded it to local visionary “Chief” Harry Gordon for $25,000. Gordon, a descendant of the Miami Tribe, opened a motion picture house in the building in 1927.

It was the second movie theater in Steamboat Springs and the first to feature “talkies.” The space was home to a movie theater until 2012 when it closed its doors.

The theater was purchased for $1.45 million by the Friends of the Chief with help from private investors in 2012. In summer 2013, the Chief Theater opened as a cultural and performing arts center.

For the first year, efforts to achieve the board’s mission to create a vibrant and dynamic venue were gradual. Then in December, the Friends of the Chief Foundation sold the building to longtime supporters Mary and Jack McClurg for $1.45 mil­lion. The sale allowed the nonprofit Friends of the Chief to lease the space and remain in operation without worries of mortgage payments.

When COVID hit in March 2020, business at the performing arts theater came to a standstill, and the theater was shuttered by the owners of the building in 2021 after the nonprofit could no longer keep up with lease payments. The McClurgs planned to renovate the space and reopen it as a for-profit performing arts venue, but the theater has never reopened.

In December 2023, the nonprofit group Undiscovered Earth began exploring the possibility of purchasing the Chief Theater building, with hopes of reopening the theater as a performing arts center. The group was able to raise more than $1 million in donations and pledges before those efforts ended short of the goal in March 2024.

Dagny McKinley, executive director of Undiscovered Earth, was expecting the property to close shortly after the nonprofit organization failed to raise the $2.5 million to purchase the historic downtown venue. That closing came in September.

Nothing has happened at the property since, and a local real estate agent said the new owners are still exploring plans and not ready to talk when the Steamboat Pilot & Today reached out Thursday morning.