The venue recently housed the Boston run of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. "After all these years, it's time to move on," Tremont Entertainment Enterprises Inc. managing partner Robert S. Merowitz told the paper. His company currently owns the landmark venue, which they purchased in 1988 for $3.1 million. The 1,200-seat theatre located in the heart of the Boston theatre district on Tremont Street was designed by architect Clarence H. Blackwall. The house, which opened in 1914, was built by the Shubert brothers and named after their manager A.L. Wilbur. Renovated in the 1960s and again in the 1980s, it garnered landmark status in 1987. The declaration of landmark will protect the stage from being demolished or changed drastically.

Live Nation Inc. had previously held a lease on the Wilbur until almost a year ago. The real estate firm of Grubb & Ellis Co. is charged with presenting the property.

"I would like to see it stay an entertainment use," said Merowitz, who himself had previously saved the theatre. "Everyone always loved the Wilbur Theatre because it was such an intimate house."