The Hagerman Foundation in Flint, Michigan, has committed $4 million to modernize and restore the city’s Capitol Theatre, Mlive.com reports.

The project, which got under way earlier this month, is expected to cost more than $32 million. Built in 1928, the fifteen-hundred-seat theater boasts Italian Renaissance-style interiors and hosted a variety of acts and performers before it closed in the mid-1990s. The building recently was acquired by the Uptown Reinvestment Corporation and The Whiting, a Flint-based nonprofit that works to promote and support regional performing arts groups.

"When you look at the pictures of the Capitol and you see what it was in its heyday, and realize what it can become, we [think] it can bring a thousand to fifteen hundred people downtown for restaurants and dinners and bars and activities," said Phil Hagerman, co-founder of the foundation. "I love this city. I couldn't be more excited."