HOLLADAY — When Nolen Mendenhall entered the Villa Theater for the first time to look at what needed to be done to renovate it, he was surprised and delighted to smell popcorn.

The theater had been closed for more than a year and had extensive water damage. All the theater seats had been sold, so a huge open space was all that remained in the main theater area. However, with no electricity, it was dark, the big red curtains still covered the place where the screen had been, the murals on the walls were still there — and it smelled like popcorn. The theater atmosphere remained.

Mendenhall, who had been asked by the theater's new owner, Hamid Adib, to come look at what it would require to renovate it, could suddenly imagine himself as a child once again running up and down the aisles terrorizing people at the movies on a Saturday afternoon.

Adib also has fond memories of taking his children to the theater and hopes, through the renovation, to allow others the same opportunity to relive their memories of it. He purchased the Villa Theater more than a year ago after hearing of the city's plans to demolish it. He had a great desire to preserve it.

"It's a landmark and has always been a landmark," he said. "When I got it, they were looking at demolishing it, but it's part of the heritage and is a treasure of the city. It's a link of old and new generations."

Adib couldn't stand the idea of such a historic landmark being destroyed, so he bought it with the intention to preserve it for the community's sake. The theater has been undergoing an extensive renovation for the past year to bring it up to seismic code, make mechanical upgrades, put in a new electrical system and repair water-damaged areas to prepare it for its new use — as a rug gallery to display original Oriental, Persian and European rugs Adib sells.

Once the renovations are complete, Adib will move his business, Adib's Rug Gallery, which is just down the street from the theater, into the building. Patrons will be given the opportunity to not only relive their memories of it but also to experience the handcrafted rugs in Adib's store.

As such, he said the renovation work has been painstaking.

"Everyone involved realizes what a landmark this building is. Because of that, they don't want to shortcut on the preservation work. The plan is for the building that has been here since the 1940s to stay another several hundred years," Adib said.

So far, the project has cost well over a million dollars. Adib said the cost and time for the renovation have been three times as much as he originally estimated. Many times when the work crew opens something up, three hidden things to fix pop up. He said it would have cost less if he had built an entirely new building the same size as the Villa. However, he never considered that an option.