Catalyze 2026: Paul Wilborn (Palladium Theater)

We’re asking thought leaders, business people and creatives to talk about the upcoming new year and give us catalyzing ideas for making St. Pete a better place to live. What should our city look like? What are their hopes, their plans, their problem-solving ideas? This is Catalyze 2026.

Big change is in store for the Palladium Theater in 2026 – thanks to a very public capital campaign that’s on track to raise $13 million for major renovations, including news seats, better acoustics and vastly improved sightlines.

The 800-seat Palladium will close for a year, probably in August, as construction commences.

Executive director Paul Wilborn is eyeballing greener pastures for everyone in ’26. “I’m starting to feel, as I look at the new year, that I’m kind of the old guy in town,” he laughs. “Because I’ve been running the Palladium now for over 17 years. And a lot of the men and women I started with have moved on, or taken other jobs, or retired.

“But what’s exciting is, we’ve got a lot of great leadership in the big arts organizations in St. Pete, who’ve just been here for a year or two years. And I think they’re really going to hit their stride in the new year. And I’m excited about that.”

Leadership, he stresses, “is really important in our arts institutions. I’m real impressed with the new folks at The Florida Orchestra, and the Museum of Fine Arts, the Holocaust Museum, American Stage … they’ve been here for a few years, but I think it takes a few years to get your feet underneath you.”

Wilborn says the theater’s renovation bankbook, which includes money from the State of Florida, the City of St. Petersburg and the county’s Tourist Development Council, as well as private donations, is practically swelling.

“People are suddenly responding to the capital campaign in a bigger way. We’re raising a lot of money, through the Name-a-Seat campaign and other things, because people know it’s happening, and they feel excited that it’s happening.

“It’s incredibly gratifying and exciting to be where we are. Because until we got there, we were never sure we would raise all this money, in the environment we’re in right now. But we’re already picking contractors, and in January we’re going to pick the construction company … and we’ll be doing work by late summer.”

He’s hoping the Side Door Cabaret, the small room below the main hall, might be able to remain open a little longer. “It’s hard to know yet,” Wilborn explains, “until we know exactly what scope of this project, and will we still have parts of the building accessible?”