Queen Park Multi-Cinema sign gets new owner

Historic Charlotte has found a home for the “Queen Park Multi-Cinema” sign, and it won’t be far from its original site on South Boulevard.

The agency ran a contest late last year to ascertain who would put the sign to the best use, asking interested parties where the sign would be displayed and how it would be protected and preserved.

The 5-by-10-foot metal and Plexiglas sign will go to Joe Lariscy and his investment partners, who will install it at a proposed food and entertainment venue at 4125 Yancey Road. The project, just half a mile from the sign’s previous site, is slated to open this fall.

Pappas Properties offered the sign to a new owner after it was unable to incorporate it into its plans for a transit-oriented development at the site. The company dismantled the sign in 2014.

The cinema opened in 1982 and closed in 1998.

In other developments, Historic Charlotte recently combined its operations with the Charlotte Museum of History. The merged agencies will operate under the Charlotte Museum of History name and focus on educational programs and historic preservation in the region.