HILLIARD SQUARE - A theater with history, and maybe a future.

Bob Dobush lives at the theater, and not in any metaphorical sense. The collector and restorer of antique radios keeps an apartment above the long-vacant Hilliard Square theater in Lakewood. He bought the landmark in 1998 to save it from the wrecking ball.

Behind the theater's Hilliard Avenue door stands the decaying glory of a bygone era, an ornate lobby and staircase. To the right you can see light at the end of a tunnel — a retail arcade that stretches through the building, all the way to Madison Avenue. These days the spaces are stacked with boxes of old radios and spare parts. Broken cakes of fallen plaster dot the carpet. Inside the auditorium the eyes can't help but be drawn up into the expanse — past the frescoes, past a balcony to a vaulted ceiling, and an endless gallery of architectural details. Depending on your age, you might remember time- warping while the Rocky Horror Picture Show played on the screen, or maybe porno, or art flicks, or, if you can remember more than three decades ago, mainstream movies.

These days, like the nearby Variety theater on Lorain, or the LaSalle on East 185th, and so many others in and around Cleveland, the Hilliard sits empty in magnificent decay, defying entrepreneurs and dreamers to figure out a way to use it. Right after Dobush bought the Hilliard, he turned down a purchase offer from one of the drugstore chains — the new owner would have razed the building. Dobush wants to find a buyer who will see it for the architectural landmark it is, and preserve it. Now opportunity is near the door, but whether it knocks will depend on a few local decision makers getting together with the same vision.

First among them are the trustees at Beck Center for the Arts. Their announcement last week that the organization —courted by Crocker Park developer Bob Stark — will stay and build new facilities somewhere in Lakewood came as great news for the city. It's also probably one of the best chances Northeast Ohio will ever have to rescue an old theater and return it to active use — not just to patch it up and open the doors, but to restore it, fill it with creative activity, and make it the neighborhood anchor that it once was.

The Beck's decision to stay comes just a year after Lakewood Planning Director Tom Jordan hired the architectural firm Westlake Reed Leskosky to explore options for bringing Dobush's building back to use. The suggestions range from cinema to stage to gymnastics training facility, with cost estimates ranging from $800,000 to stabilize the property, to $9.4 million for total, phased construction.

But the study doesn't stop there: The architects were charged with developing concepts for the entire, triangular block. Their vision includes a parking garage and new retail and residential — in short, an arts district anchored by the historic theater, the very kind of place Beck Center board president Fred Ungar has repeatedly said he wants.

Jordan says he'd like to see Beck Center at least use the theater for its larger productions, and suggested as much to the leadership at Beck Center. During discussions before the city offered the organization a $20,000 grant to develop a concept for an arts district, he gave Beck CEO Jim Walton a copy of the study.

With the city's help, Beck could take on an even more ambitious task: Instead of building anew on its Detroit Avenue location, Beck could build new facilities next to the Hilliard. Either option would come with design, programming and financial challenges. The Hilliard has an orchestra pit and fly space, both of which are lacking in the Beck's current facilities, both of which artistic director Scott Spence hopes to have in a new theater. But the Hilliard is nearly triple the size of Beck's Main Stage. The size creates programming and revenue possibilities, from concerts to high school commencement exercises, but it also would require some right-sizing solution for the theater season.

Neither does the Hilliard have a black box theater, or classrooms, or offices. All that would have to be built. And dating to 1927, it's another old building.

But Ungar — an experienced fundraiser, having led successful, multi-million-dollar campaigns for Metro General Hospital — has already talked about raising as much as $20 million and rebuilding Beck's entire campus. If Beck were to relocate at Hilliard Square, the organization could capitalize not only on the panache of the landmark theater, but also by leveraging the city's interest. Jordan says the city would help establish a neighborhood development corporation that could help find sources of money and open doors to partnership opportunities. He says it's possible that the city or a CDC could own the facility and hire Beck to manage it, for both its own and other events, which could bring urgently needed money to the theater. He mentions the city's commercial property revitalization program and suggests that such a project might also be eligible for federal funds.

"Certainly we could consider the Hilliard Theatre as well," Ungar says. "It's big, and pretty expensive — but I think we're going to be open to all those ideas."

Not long ago, the question of choosing another site in Lakewood would have been ludicrous: No space large enough was available. Lately, though, tracts of land are coming in steady supply. Giant Eagle's purchase of several Tops stores, including one in Lakewood, will idle two city blocks on Detroit. The ongoing reconstruction of the city schools will eventually result in vacancy at four schools, any of which could be considered as a potential new site (especially in light of Beck's plan to ally with Lakewood schools to create an Arts and Communications Academy).

No matter where Beck Center lands, Ungar and his colleagues will have the challenge of raising a substantial amount of money. As Jordan points out, it's hard to do that without a concept. Armed with the $20,000 grant from the city, Beck's search for a firm to develop that concept so far includes Paul Volpe's firm, City Architecture, or the Kent State University Urban Design Center. Ungar says the organization has not yet made a choice. Before any firm can develop concepts, though, Ungar and company will have to choose a location for the largest arts and educational organization on the West Side. That includes choosing a place where the multiplier effect of related restaurants and retail — the arts district Ungar has mentioned several times — has the greatest possibility of success.

"It's their decision," Jordan says. "We can't choose their site or design it for them."

Maybe the most important decision maker who would have to share the vision is Bob Dobush.

"I bought [the Hilliard] to keep it from being razed," he says.

With the city's interest, Beck Center's decision pending and the county looking to the arts as a caltalyst for economic development, there has never been a time when forces have been better aligned for the job.

mgill@freetimes.com