By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
KALAMAZOO — A historic theatre in Kalamazoo will soon get new life, thanks to a couple from Sturgis.
In a press conference Tuesday, Sturgis natives Dan and Holly Carmichael announced that their company, Lead Balloon Productions, purchased the Kalamazoo State Theatre, announcing plans to “restore and preserve” the nearly 100-year-old venue.
“When you walk into the State, it feels like stepping into another world,” Dan Carmichael said, according to WZZM-TV. “We want to keep that sense of wonder alive.”
The theatre had been dark for the last year after operations were paused in the fall of 2024 as the Hinman Company, which owned the theatre for nearly 40 years, looked for new ownership. As reported by WOOD-TV, Stephanie Hinman, the executive director of the theatre at the time of the shutdown, said the Carmichaels were a perfect fit.
“It was not an easy decision when my family decided to pause operations, but it was an easy decision when we found Dan and Holly Carmichael. They epitomize everything we were looking for,” Hinman told WOOD-TV Tuesday. She also reportedly cited the couple’s business background, experience with events, and their “passion for the arts” as other reasons why they’d be a good fit.
Dan Carmichael is one of the co-founders of GT Independence, a financial management service based in Sturgis that mainly serves people who are hiring caregivers. Holly Carmichael was a former CEO of the company as well. Both moved to Kalamazoo in the last few months, but have some ties to the area – Holly earned degrees from Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Western Michigan University, and Dan, according to an MLive article, grew up playing in the Kalamazoo Optimist Hockey Association, and the couple shared one of their first dates at the theatre.
The Carmichaels say they hope to reopen the venue by 2027, the 100th anniversary of the theatre. The State Theatre is on the National Register of Historic Places and has hosted such acts as B.B. King, Bob Dylan, the Dave Matthews Band, and Run DMC.
“We will restore it. We will preserve it. And we will fill these halls with music and comedy performances of all types,” Dan Carmichael said, according to WOOD-TV.
According to MLive, the Carmichaels are planning on partnering with architectural firm Wilson Butler Architects on those restoration efforts. That, according to NowKalamazoo, includes expanding the facilities, upgrading restrooms, making accessibility adjustments, and expanding dressing rooms and backstage areas. Progress updates will be posted at state-theatre.org.
“Our daughter is a wheelchair user,” Holly Carmichael said, according to NowKalamazoo. “So, we know there will be pieces of accessibility that we want to address. We want the theater to be inclusive for all patrons and performers.”
The sale of the building, according to multiple articles, also includes the recently-closed Harvey’s on the Mall and the adjacent corner in which the restaurant The Grazing Table is currently located. NowKalamazoo reported that the Carmichaels “don’t have any firm plans yet” for the Harvey’s property, and that the Grazing Table would be moving locations in the near future. A purchase price for the theatre was not disclosed.
Dan Carmichael, who is also a stand-up comedian in his spare time, said that not a lot of buildings have the “soul or character” that the State Theatre has.
“Kalamazoo has been an incredible hub for business, sports, and absolutely, the arts scene. We think that soul of art is cornerstone here. And we want to embrace that,” Dan Carmichael said, according to WWMT-TV.
Holly agreed.
“I want to make sure that Jon Eberson [the original architect of the theater] would be proud of the work that we did to the theater and that we will do it to the theater,” Holly Carmichael said, according to NowKalamazoo. “It’s really important to make sure we do it right, and that we preserve those things, even though we’re still making modifications and modernizing other things. … I can promise you, you will love it even more when we’re finished.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
