JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Days after the discovery of asbestos forced the city to delay reopening it, Thalia Mara Hall could again be open this Friday.
On Monday, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba gave an update on efforts to restore the facility, months after the discovery of microbial growth forced the hall to be temporarily shut down.
“All the remediation testing is cleared. The remediation is intended to remove asbestos hazards, and testing has been done to confirm the hazards have been removed. A few minor repairs were made today. We’re only waiting for the Fire Marshal’s inspection. If it passes, we should be open by Friday,” he said.
The Fire Marshal is expected to conduct a walk-through on Thursday. State inspectors discovered 22 violations at the facility back in September.
Lumumba told reporters that renovations won’t stop at simply reopening the 2,000-seat auditorium and that plans are in the works to improve patrons’ overall experience when they visit the facility.
“We want to make an… entertainment experience which is consistent with the 21st Century, which is consistent with the beauty of our auditorium on the outside. We want it to be reflected on the inside,” he said. “We have to make investments on the front end. We have to be considerate of what investments are necessary on a routine basis to outfit those amenities to the residents.”
According to the city’s website, Thalia Mara was constructed in 1968 and opened as the Jackson Municipal Auditorium. It was renamed after Thalia Mara in 1994 in honor of her efforts to establish a ballet company in the capital city and to secure the hall as the permanent U.S. location for the International Ballet Competition.
In recent years, the theater has fallen into disrepair. In 2013 and 2014, local leaders came together to raise millions of dollars to make improvements there before the 2014 IBC. Those repairs were completed, only for more problems in the last year.
And what were those problems?
Documents obtained by WLBT showed numerous problems at the facility, including a sinking orchestra pit, a broken passenger elevator, malfunctioning toilets, and HVAC concerns.
In late July, microbial mold grew out of control in the facility after the last operational HVAC unit shut down over a long weekend. The increased heat, coupled with humidity in the decades-old building, led to the growth.
The hall shut down on August 1. Since then, the city has been working to clean the facility and address additional concerns that came about through an inspection by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Plans were for Thalia Mara to reopen on January 17. But the reopening was delayed after contractors discovered asbestos when they removed a portion of the carpet in the auditorium.
“We shut down the facility for a few days, fogged it, and in the haste of doing it, the contractor assumed the problem came from the carpet,” City Contract Engineer Emad Al-Turk said. “A visual inspection from what was under the carpet appears to be asbestos.”
“We sent sampling to the lab. We’re hoping to get some results sometime this evening. If the results are negative, we can move forward and get everything completed next week… If the results are positive, [we are going] to take another week to contain the asbestos.”
Lumumba says the city’s Departments of Planning and Development and Human and Cultural Services are mapping out plans for the hall’s future, including “new management opportunities” for the facility.
The mayor also says that the city is looking at addressing several “missed opportunities” in other areas, such as concessions.
Said Lumumba, “Today, you don’t just get nachos and popcorn when you go to movie theaters. We are a city with culinary expertise… I’d like to see Thalia Mara Hall present even some good catfish while [people are] enjoying a show.”
Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.
Copyright 2025 WLBT. All rights reserved.
‘ Este Articulo puede contener información publicada por terceros, algunos detalles de este articulo fueron extraídos de la siguiente fuente: www.wlbt.com ’
