Crews broke ground Aug. 21 on a $12 million conversion of the Nomar Theater, turning the 1938 North End landmark into a food hall with seven vendor stalls, a bar, live music and a patio big enough to claim part of a city street.

Nonprofit Empower is leading the project, called Provecho, at 2141 N. Market St. Executive director Ariel Rodriguez expects the food hall to open in about a year, according to the Wichita Eagle.

The price tag is nearly double the $6.2 million figure cited when the groundbreaking was announced earlier this month. Rodriguez told the crowd the increase reflects the full scope: the adjacent building to the north will house seven food vendor spaces, a bar and retail, while the theater itself becomes a sit-down dining room with live entertainment. Designers plan to flatten the theater's sloped main floor and reimagine the old balcony.

"We're building the space for our entrepreneurs to truly launch businesses and for people to come together and celebrate and be part of the next generation of what's happening right here in Nomar," Rodriguez said at the ceremony.

The city agreed to narrow a section of 21st Street in front of the food hall to one lane, giving Provecho a larger patio footprint. Work on the lane closure was set to begin the week of Aug. 24.

Empower board chair Gene Camarena said at the groundbreaking that he hoped the project would attract new visitors to the Nomar district. Camarena, a Pizza Hut franchisee, bought the theater at auction in 2021 for $300,000 and donated it along with the neighboring building to Empower.

"We welcome the opportunity to have more people from across the city to come and share this food, this culture, this community that has been a little neglected over the years," Camarena said. "… This space, we're confident, is going to bring people back to us."

The name Provecho comes from "buen provecho," a Spanish phrase equivalent to "bon appétit."

Rodriguez described the food hall as a bridge for entrepreneurs between selling at a farmers market and opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. He said he is already in talks with prospective vendors but did not name them.

Empower opened a $3.5 million commercial kitchen next door at 103 E. 21st St. in April 2025. That facility, the Empower Camarena Adelante Center, now serves nearly 50 clients including food truck operators and caterers. Rodriguez said in a June 2025 Wichita Foundation profile that the kitchen had helped "several food businesses form and expand," bringing "new visibility to the North End."

The Nomar Theater has been closed since the mid-1980s, when Wichita businessman James Basham bought it and used it as a furniture warehouse. Before that, brothers Julio and Greg Caudillo ran it as a Mexican movie house that drew Sunday crowds of about 250 in the late 1970s.

Provecho's opening is targeted for roughly August 2027. No vendor lineup has been announced.