Del Rio delays Paul Poag Theatre rehab contract vote
City leaders put a $2.53 million Paul Poag Theatre rehab contract on hold, stalling the next step in Del Rio’s downtown comeback. The 7-0 delay keeps the project alive, but not moving.
Del Rio’s plan to award a $2,529,960 rehabilitation contract for the Paul Poag Theatre was put on hold, freezing one of the city’s most visible downtown projects until council members get more answers. The 7-0 postponement means Jose Ernesto Salazar LLC, doing business as JESCO, did not receive the contract for the work at 746 South Main Street.
The item had been set to authorize Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez to award the contract, but councilman J.P. Sanchez moved to postpone the vote because questions still needed to be addressed. Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus provided the second, and the council agreed unanimously to delay the decision. City Secretary Mari Acosta read the executive-session justification and agenda heading before the theater item was discussed behind closed doors, but no action was taken in executive session.
The delay matters because the contract was the next formal step in a long-running effort to restore the historic theater to public use. The City of Del Rio owns and operates the Paul Poag Theatre and describes it as one of its main quality-of-life facilities. The building was long known as the Rita Theater before John and Evelyn Prude donated it to the city in memory of Paul Poag, whose name is tied to much of Del Rio’s early movie-house history. Paul Poag arrived in Del Rio in 1924, opened the Princess Theatre in 1928, the Strand Theatre in 1931, and the Rita Theatre in 1941. After fire damage in 1943, the theater was rebuilt, closed in 1978, and reopened on December 16, 1983 as the Paul Poag Theatre for the Performing Arts.
The project has already been moving through a shifting timeline. Able City told council earlier that the theater could reopen in a little more than a year if everything stayed on track, and city records show a May 2026 target had been discussed before that slipped. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation lists the project at an estimated $2.7 million, with a start date of January 5, 2026 and completion date of September 30, 2026, covering accessibility, life-safety and building-systems upgrades in the 11,764-square-foot venue.
This is not the first pause. Del Rio council approved advertising bids for Phase III in October 2025, then rejected all bids in March 2026 and ordered the project rebid. City bid records show the Phase III request for bids closed on April 24, 2026. JESCO was the only Del Rio company to submit, and Able City consultants recommended the firm, but Tuesday’s vote leaves the contract on hold until the council brings it back and resolves the questions now standing between Del Rio and the next stage of the Paul Poag Theatre rehab.
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