ESCONDIDO — John Paul the Great Catholic University has started renovating a vacant former furniture store downtown into a creative arts hub serving students and the community.
In 2016, JPCatholic bought the 30,620-square-foot building that once housed Johnson Furniture and Sears Roebuck with the help of a $1.5 million gift from the Caster Family Trust and debt financing.
From the beginning, the plan was to turn the building into an arts complex serving the university’s cinematic, visual, and performing arts programs. However, the COVID-19 pandemic stalled progress. Now that renovations have officially begun, the goal is to have the arts complex finished by next year.
The building is perfect for the small, 300-student university that focuses on the creative arts and business innovation. The university has spent the last 11 years in Escondido’s downtown area on and around Grand Avenue, where school President Derry Connolly founded it in the early 2000s.
Originally, the school bought the former JCPenney building due to its large size and high ceilings, which worked well for sound stages. That building is back-to-back with the future arts complex, another large building that will suit the school well.
“What’s not obvious is that it’s a relatively ugly building on the outside, but the inside is beautiful,” Connolly said about the former furniture store. “It’s got a tall barrel ceiling with an arch to it. It’s perfect for studio space.”
The arts complex will be divided into two separate buildings, one for cinematic and visual arts and the other for performing arts. A courtyard will connect the two and serve as a venue for community events, outdoor performances and student life activities.
Plans for the complex include a new soundstage, illustration studio, and acting rehearsal studio, as well as additional classrooms and computer labs.
“Once complete, the new Creative Arts buildings will elevate the student experience and unlock innovative collaborations for our students across all creative disciplines,” said professor George Simon, chair of Communications Media, in a news release announcing the start of renovations.
Simon launched the Feature Film Program at JPCatholic in 2021, introducing the production of commercially distributed films into the curriculum. The program’s first film, “O, Brawling Love!” is expected to be released on streaming this summer, and the second film, “No Reception,” is currently in post-production.
According to the school, the new facilities will expand the capabilities of future projects, with additional space for film sets and production offices.
Renovations to the building are expected to cost the university approximately $4.2 million, which will be funded through debt financing as well as a large $1 million donation and several smaller donations.
Connolly believes the building will provide critical infrastructure to nurture a creative arts industry cluster in Escondido, which is a key strategic priority for the university.
“This production space will explode our capacity to produce content across the entertainment spectrum,” he said. “It will provide an increased hands-on learning experience for our students in collaboration with our alumni and other industry partners as they produce commercially viable projects. The expanding media-savvy student and alumni talent pool will make Escondido a compelling location for emerging communications-centric companies to incubate and grow.”
The university is considering converting a different building it owns across the street from the furniture store along Maple Street between Second and Third Avenue into student housing as part of a series of expansion projects. Originally, the plan was to turn the building into a chapel; however, the school is now considering building the chapel in the parking lot next to the existing building.
Connolly noted a chapel was originally planned for the property in 1925 but never built. One hundred years later, the university hopes to bring those old plans to fruition.
Connolly sees a bright future for the university and Escondido, which has served the school well over the last decade.
“Escondido is a wonderful community for the university,” he said. “It’s a welcoming place and a good city to do business in the industry… we see lots of opportunities in Escondido.”
