{"id":71619,"date":"2025-12-28T03:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T03:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/71619\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T03:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T03:54:07","slug":"the-ritz-theater-a-living-piece-of-history-is-on-sale-for-2-6-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/71619\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ritz Theater, a living piece of history, is on sale for $2.6 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newswatch 16’s Valeria Qui\u00f1ones spoke with the owner about The Ritz Theater about its pending future.<\/p>\n

SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Built in 1907, the Ritz Theater on Wyoming Ave in downtown Scranton has seen generations come and go. It has been a puzzle piece in the life of many popular performers, including Harry Houdini and Lucille Ball.<\/p>\n

Born and raised just a city over, that history Josh Balz saw and heard about was the driving factor for him to purchase the property back in 2023.<\/p>\n

“I thought Scranton or even our area completely has a huge, giant lack of the music scene. It needed an injection. There were great venues back in the day, like Tinks, Cafe Metropolis, and Redwoods, and all these small venues, and it kind of went away,” says Balz.<\/p>\n

Josh says restoring the theater wasn’t just about reviving the local creative and music scene; it was about honoring its past. He brought back a 1920s-inspired look, blending it with a darker, modern style.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since its restoration and juggling other business ventures, he says it’s time to pass the torch. “This building deserves — it deserves everything it deserves. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s a beautiful building, and I’ll go down with this building if I Have to.”<\/p>\n

The building is now listed for $2.6 million on LoopNet by Lewith & Freeman Real Estate Inc.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Josh says the Ritz hosts movies, concerts, and special events. It’s also home to a tattoo shop, a gothic ice cream shop, and Josh’s own restaurant and bar, Noir\u2014making it a unique social hub in downtown Scranton.<\/p>\n

“That was my main goal. To have somewhere for people to go, whether it’s for music, theater, or movies, and just an all-around place that was accepting of all people.”<\/p>\n

In the midst of the theater’s success, its revival hasn’t come without challenges. Josh says a former business partner allegedly stole thousands of dollars from the business.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Josh says he’s ready to move forward with more safeguards in place. He hopes the next person, whether a new business partner for the theater or new owner entirely, continues honoring the Ritz’s history while bringing even more life to downtown Scranton.<\/p>\n

“I think I’ll be very picky with the person who takes it. It’s nice to be able to have that ability. I want to make sure it goes into the right hands or has the right person involved.”<\/p>\n

For Josh, the dream is simple\u2014that the Ritz remains a living piece of Scranton history for generations to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newswatch 16’s Valeria Qui\u00f1ones spoke with the owner about The Ritz Theater about its pending future. SCRANTON, Pa.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-71619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-scranton","9":"tag-scranton-headlines","10":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}