The Streator Eagle 6 dimmed its lights for the last time this week, marking the end of a nearly decade-long run and leaving the city without a movie theater.

Owner Eric Gubelman publicly announced the closure Sunday, confirming that all three Eagle Theaters locations, Streator, Robinson and Clinton, have closed.

“There is rarely just one thing that shutters a small business’s doors, but a series of unfortunate events,” Gubelman wrote in a Facebook post, pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic and labor strikes in the entertainment industry as obstacles the theater has faced over the last few years.

Under Gubelman, the theater was reopened in 2016 following a $2 million renovation of the former theater near Northpoint Plaza on the north side of town. Gubelman said the project was made possible through a combination of private investment, city incentives and support from local business leaders.

“The patron saints behind the scenes of Streator Eagle 6 are Scott Wrighton and Keith Weinstein,” Gubelman said. Wrighton is Streator’s former city manager, and Weinstein is a local investor whose family has ties to the city.

Gubelman, a former newspaper journalist and city administrator, said his career has been defined by efforts to strengthen small-town communities. He first entered the movie theater business in 2004, opening the original Eagle Theater in Robinson after growing frustrated with having to drive to see movies.

“The common thread through all of this and through my career has been trying to make small towns better,” he said. In a past article with Shaw Local, Gubelman viewed his team at Eagle 6 as “one of the keepers of the small town flame.”

While the theater is closed, Gubelman said the door is not completely shut. He noted that the foreclosure process may simplify ownership and could create an opportunity for a new buyer or investor.

“My daughter Kelsa and I would be up for another go if the community support was there,” he said. “We have the plan. We have the ability. We just don’t have the capital.”

Part of the post announcing the closure, Gubelman included a public survey asking people whether they would commit to seeing at least one movie per month if a theater were to reopen.

“If 1,500 people in each market were willing to say, ‘I’ll see one movie a month,’ that kind of civic confidence would carry weight for us,” he said.

Holding his employees in the highest regard, Gubelman said he spent the theater’s final night in Streator with the staff, thanking them personally and sharing memories.

“If there is a chance the Streator theater reopens, it will be because of that staff,” he said.