Tampa Theatre renovation nearly complete

The Tampa Theatre is set to reopen Friday after a massive renovation.  It has new seats and a fully renovated lobby.  The concession stand has also been redone.

It's the first major restoration of the historic theater in more than 40 years.  It took about six weeks to complete.

The goal was to return the theater back to its 1926 look, with help from pictures from years ago.

“The original seats back in 1926 were beautiful, they were this chocolate brown, with a very ornate back on them. For the first time in history, you are getting cup holders, you can actually see in this section, we've added these beautiful bistro tables between every other seat," offered theater’s Jill Witecki.

Painting and secondary work may still be going on when the theater opens Friday.

To celebrate, the theater is showing the Golden Globe-nominated film ‘The Shape of Water.’