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ACT III FOR EL REY
$1.2M permit for work issued at movie theater turned brewery
kelly bros1
Mark Abram, left, and Joe Kelly are shown in this 2011 photo shortly before the brewery closed. - photo by Bulletin file photo

El Rey Theatre is about to go through another rebirth.
The theater that opened on April 15, 1937 as Manteca’s most prominent and tallest commercial building to help create a downtown buzz during The Great Depression and burned after a screening of the Towering Inferno on Aug. 6, 1975 sat vacant for 23 years before it was given new life as Kelly Brothers Brewing Co. & Brickyard Oven Restaurant in 1998. The Great Recession claimed Kelly Brothers as a victim in 2011.
Now the building is getting a new lease on life.
The City of Manteca  in January issued a permit for $1.2 million worth of work for the 9,582-square-foot building. Efforts have been under way for the last year to turn it into an events center with food service. The building is just a stone’s throw from the historical and current geographic  heart of Manteca at Yosemite Avenue and Main Street. Both the El Rey and Kelly Brothers when they were opened help trigger a surge of downtown activity and investment.
The permit was one  of the largest issued last month. Altogether 214 permits were issued for work valued at $21.7 million. It is a significant amount of work given January has traditionally been the weakest month in Manteca for construction starts. If the next 11 months simply match January for building activity, Manteca will end 2018 with $260 million in new private sector construction.
That would eclipse the record of $228 million set last year.
The January figures include 37 new single family housing starts valued at $11.3 million.

Work starting on
new 492-home
neighborhood
In addition Trumark Homes was issued a $1.2 million grading permit to start work on the biggest subdivision ever built east of Highway 99 also involves constructing the city’s biggest roundabout that will be placed on Louise Avenue at Felice Way between Cottage Avenue and the Highway 99 overpass. It also will be the first roundabout on a major four-lane arterial.
Trumark Homes — a Bay Area builder — has approval to construct 492 homes in a gated community on 122 acres project west of Cottage Avenue on the south side of Louise Avenue and east of Highway 99. Among the features of the project are:
uThe neighborhood park that anyone in Manteca can use will sit next to a clubhouse and swimming pool that features outdoor and indoor kitchens that only Shadowbrook residents can access. There will also be a small amphitheater.
uA homeowners association will maintain all street lighting, the clubhouse and the neighborhood park. They will also be part of a community facilities district to maintain the perimeter landscaping.
uThe neighborhood will include a number of executive-style homes on lots up to 20,400 square feet.
uThere will be a decorative 13-foot high masonry wall along the Highway 99 freeway corridor.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com