RKO Keith's Theatre
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
51 people
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I remember the good old days too. The days when this page was about a theater… a theater in…um…Flushing! That’s it, a theater in Flushing. Called the… the… wait, don’t rush me… the RKO Keith’s! Yeah, I remember it now… I remember it like it was yesterday.
Actually, I have no idea what happened yesterday.
LuisV… I know this has veered too far off topic, so I will end my piece by pointing out that it is not “we” who “pick and choose the pieces we want to keep from the past and which to let go.” Sort of like how profit seeking insurance companies choose what kind of medical care you and I can receive (and not our doctors), the decisions as to which parts of our architectural and pop-cultural heritage remain are made by wealthy corporations whose only motivation is to increase their wealth.
Ed, thanks so much for your comments. Believe it or not, in spite of my comments above, I agree with a lot of what you have said. I do hate that we have a Starbucks next to a Duane Reade, next to a Commerce Bank in what appears to be a never ending cycle. I do miss the sense of adventure when we went to clubs in the “scary” parts of town. That was part of the fun. Now that I’m older now (I’m 48) I look at things a little differently from back then. I grew up in South Ozone Park, a great neighborhood where we frequently left our doors unlocked. However, most people in the neighborhood were terrified about going into “the city”. No one ever rode the subway after 7PM. I remember going to the Museum of Natural History on a school trip and being forbidden to cross Columbus Avenue to the west because the neighborhood was too dangerous! Can you imagine?!
I don’t know what the answer is in terms of balance. All I can say is that I feel that the city, overall, is infinitely in a better position today than it was back then. We can’t pick and choose the pieces we want to keep from the past and which to let go.
I just moved into a new condo in the Financial District. The building was converted from a technologically obsolete office building into residential. My building is one of scores of conversions and new construction downtown. We recieved a tax abatement which means that the developers contributed to a fund that builds affordable housing elsewhere. Is it enough? No, but there is a lot going on nonetheless. I feel very proud to be part of a new and growing residential neighborhood. I guess we’ve gone off topic. :–)
Anyway Ed, I think our feelings are more similar than different. We both love this city. If we were in charge, things might be different. But…….we’re not. :–)
Many excellent points, Louis. I guess many of us tend to romanticize a certain hard edge that NYC has always had through the years. The problem with the gentrification of NYC is that any semblance of character has been bled out of most of Manhattan many parts in the outer boroughs. “Character” does not necessarily have to go hand in hand with crime and decrepitude, but it should not mean the wholesale conversion of the entire borough into a chic and high-class shopping mall. I wouldn’t presume to argue that we should go back – part and parcel – to the NYC of the 1970’s or ‘80’s (who in their right mind would want to return to four-digit annual homicide rates?)… but does the betterment of the City have to go hand in hand with placing a Starbucks on every damned corner and blanching all the urbanity out of the main strips? There is no balance… it’s all swinging in one direction. I still love this City and enjoy its cultural and culinary perks to the max – but whenever I walk in Manhattan these days, I find myself feeling more alienated from the vibe on the streets of its many neighborhoods. I feel like… well, a tourist in my own town! It’s hard to explain, but back in the day I felt a connection with my fellow New Yorker in most neighborhoods I would frequent. I mean, there were always those areas where you felt almost as if you were trespassing through a rich country club enclave (the shops on Fifth Avenue or the Upper East Side, for example) if you came in from the outer boroughs or other downtown or uptown Manhattan nabes… but today, it’s like the entire island is one big playground for tourists and the very wealthy – and I’m sort of on the outside looking in.
I guess that’s just the way of things in a capitalist society, eh? Gun to my head, I wouldn’t want to live under any other system and I surely wouldn’t want to live in any other town… but I still miss the edge and diversity that more and more is being swept out to the fringes in New York.
Yes Dave, a proper balance is what’s needed. I grew up in the “vibrant cultural days” of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s when the subways were wall to wall graffiti, had no air conditioning or even lighting at times. The city was filthy, crime ridden, had a crumbling infratructure and people were moving out by the hundreds of thousands. Many neighborhoods could not be walked in. People were afraid to come out during the day, let alone at night and tens of thousands of “affordable apartments” were going up in flames in the Bronx and Brooklyn. If this is the city that you want to go back to please move to Detroit or East St. Louis. I think they’re still “vibrant”.
No, New york is not perfect, but it is vastly better than it was. The city has created scores of thousands of affordable units, many in the shells of what burned in the 70’s. More needs to be done and it is being done. Who pays for all of this? Tax dollars. Who pays these dollars? The wealthy who buy homes and attract services and retail that employ the working poor of our city. It is a simplification, but we need the wealthy in this town in order to take care of our poor!
I’m very proud of what New York has become. I don’t want to go back to those old days and I’m sure if you really thought about how New York was back then, you would probably feel the same way.
NYC grew into a bland financial disneyfied capital. The vibrant cultural old days are gone and it’s just bland, boring rich and the urban poor. Affordable housing is out, and everyone knows it. Proper balance. Yeah, right.
Ummm. Last time I checked, Queenboro Plaza was a dump. If people want to build luxury housing for the wealthy, HOORAY!!! This area needs all of the development it could get; Offices, hotels, condos and yes, affordable housing if the developers are given incentives to provide it. I believe in historic districts, landmark preservation, etc, but I also believe that a city has to grow and change with the times. Both can be accomodated. The key is to find the proper balance.
That building on Queensboro Plaza had a grand facade indeed, it is a shame to see it go. The web site forgotten-ny mentions that the beautiful murals on the building disappeared a few years back. I snapped a pic of the site from the stranded N train last week or the week before:
View link
QBP is rapidly developing with condos and rentals…for the wealthy, of course. If the RKO Keith’s was sitting empty in the QBP area instead of Flushing, it would be bulldozed for sure to make way for luxury housing.
Flushing boom fades
By Stephen Stirling â€" Times Ledger
10/11/2007
The demise of the ambitious RKO Keith’s redevelopment project may be a harbinger of things to come in Flushing, with plans for the Municipal Lot 1 complex nearly dead and mounting delays threatening the city’s vision for Willets Point, City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) warned in recent days.
During a speech to members of the Queens Chamber of Commerce Friday, Liu said the $500 million planned redevelopment of Municipal Lot 1 may be a lost cause and the city’s expansive plans for redeveloping Willets Point may also be in jeopardy.
“I think in the next month or so you’re going to see a redefining in the set of priorities within the Bloomberg administration, and naturally some things are going to be dropped,” Liu said. “As the 2008 election nears, priorities are going to continue to shift and the probability curve is dropping fast [for these projects],” he said, alluding to the mayor’s rumored presidential ambitions.
Earlier this month, Liu and Borough President Helen Marshall were informed by Brooklyn-based Boymelgreen Development, which bought the site of RKO Keith’s in 2002, that it planned to put the property up for sale, officially ending its redevelopment bid.
Liu said Boymelgreen is breaking apart its partnership and will be liquidating its assets, thus forcing the company to sell the property. But he is hopeful another developer will revive the project because the plans have been approved by the city.
“That’s like a ghost haunting all of Flushing,” he said. “We do need to bring the RKO site back from the dead.”
Liu was less optimistic about Municipal Lot 1, and told the chamber the plans being developed by Flushing Commons LLC were all but hopeless in their current form.
“I honestly don’t think anything will happen on Lot 1,” he said. “Perhaps we can resurrect it, but unfortunately ‘resurrect’ is the word you have to use now.”
In an interview with the TimesLedger Monday, Liu elaborated, saying there is no compelling reason for the Flushing community to get behind the Muni Lot plans, which originally called for a mixed-use development featuring 500 residential units, 350,000 square feet of retail space, a 50,000-square-foot youth center and 2,000 below market rate parking spaces.
“This is a project that is not pursued by the Flushing community,” he said.
Liu said the original plan had promise, but changes proposed by the developer earlier this year that cut about 400 spaces from the parking plan, reduced the size of the youth center by nearly half and raised the proposed parking rates above what are currently available on the lot, left little incentive for Flushing residents.
“The developer seems to think it doesn’t need to deliver on the promises it made two years ago. That’s at best a woeful miscalculation and at worst just pure greed,” Liu said.
Liu’s current position is a far cry from what it was a few years ago, when standing alongside Mayor Michael Bloomberg and top brass from Flushing Commons LLC, he said the project would “set the tone and direction for Flushing for years to come.”
Liu’s more recent sentiments were echoed by state Assemblywoman Ellen Young (D-Flushing).
“If the community doesn’t need this project, it shouldn’t be pushed,” Young said.
Reached for comment, Flushing Commons LLC spokesman Jamie Van Bramer rejected the Flushing officials' claims and said the Flushing Commons project is very much alive.
“We have been working diligently with our partners in the New York City Economic Development Corporation to work out the details on a development plan that we are confident both respects our original Flushing Commons vision and is wholly achievable within this ever-changing economic environment,” Van Bramer said.
Van Bramer said the developer hopes to release a revised plan in the near future. Flushing Commons LLC is a joint venture between Flushing-based TDC Development and Construction Corp. and Rockefeller Development Corp.
Liu said, however, that Bloomberg’s priorities may not align with those of Flushing Commons.
Liu said the mayor has made it clear that the proposed multibillion-dollar redevelopment of Willets Point is a higher priority for the city, plans which are also in flux. The public approval, or ULURP, process was scheduled to begin this fall but has yet to materialize.
Unveiled by Bloomberg in April, the redevelopment project for Willets Point is expected to include 5,500 residential housing units and 1.7 million square feet of retail space and will likely cost in excess of $3 billion.
Neither EDC nor the mayor’s office returned calls for comment about when they hope the Willets Point public approval process will begin.
Liu said while he does not think the project is necessarily dependent on Bloomberg, it may be dependent on the New York Mets' Citi Field, which is expected to open in the fall of 2009.
“If that new Mets stadium is finished and there’s still not much headway made on Willets Point, then the focus and excitement will just peter off and the Willets Point idea will suffer the same fate it has for decades,” he said, referring to previous attempts to develop the hardscrabble 60-acre site.
But former Borough President Claire Shulman, who has been lobbying hard for the development of Willets Point in recent months, said getting the project off the ground during Bloomberg’s tenure is crucial.
“We want to get so far along by the time Bloomberg leaves office that there’s no possibility of reversing [the plan],” Shulman said. “You never know where support is coming from.”
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e-mail at or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
©Times Ledger 2007
Eveybody this is great news. Why are we sitting on our butts? We should be emailing The Boro President, John Liu, and The Queens Historical Society. It’s time to campaign to come on strong. Get up and do something this is another chance!!!!!!!!!!!
Here’s the problem. CB 7 is still looking at this as a “dilapidated shell of a building” that could be developed into something better.
Times Ledger
10/04/2007
Dormant RKO Keith’s theater for sale again
By Stephen Stirling
After more than five years of trying to develop the site of the famed RKO Keith’s Theater in downtown Flushing, the Brooklyn developer who owns it has put the bedraggled property up for sale, several members of Community Board 7 said this week.
Members of CB 7’s Executive Board said they were told by Borough President Helen Marshall’s office last week that Boymelgreen Development, which bought the property in 2002, is planning to sell it, effectively ending a once hopeful bid by the developer to rejuvenate the formerly majestic site.
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“It’s for sale,” said Chuck Apelian, CB 7 vice president. “[boymelgreen] bought that property in 2002 and we’ve had celebrations, we’ve had announcements and we’ve gotten nothing.”
CB 7 District Manager Marilyn Bitterman and Chairman Eugene Kelty also confirmed the property was for sale.
The marketing department at Boymelgreen said the company official who handles RKO Keith’s, Jeff Amengual, was away on business and could not be reached for comment.
After Boymelgreen bought the property, plans to turn the RKO Keith’s, a former 1920s vaudeville and movie house, into a 17-story condo tower with a senior center were finalized and approved by the Board of Standards and Appeals in 2005.
The original plans called for the construction of 200 apartments in a 17-story building, 229 parking spaces, a senior center and a landmarked lobby to preserve the theater’s history.
Elected officials hailed the project, located at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and Main Street, as the new face of Flushing.
The plans snagged last year, however, when Boymelgreen said the project would not be financially viable if changes were not made. The new plans, which called for 60 large lofts to be added to the proposal, were universally panned and unanimously rejected by CB 7.
“The current owner has obviously failed and it’s too bad. It’s a disappointment,” said City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing). “The good thing is there are a set of plans that have been approved by the city, and that helps ensure that we have a quality building go up when we do go forward.”
Following the rejection, both Apelian and attorneys for Boymelgreen hinted that the developer might sell the property.
Apelian said he is confident, however, that the site will be redeveloped. The building is a dilapidated shell of its former self, but Apelian said the site – located at the corner of Main Street and Northern Boulevard – is too good a piece of real estate to remain vacant forever.
“Ten years from now when the thing is built and it’s five or six years old, people are going to say, man we should have developed that,” Apelian said. “Someone will build there.”
Apelian cautioned that if the property is sold, the new owner will have to work with the community to build within the framework that was already approved by the city.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “Hope is eternal.”
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e-mail at or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
Again .. I agree with you 110% .. I quoted “an old movie house” to illusrate the point that most might just look at this effort as simply that .. some nostalgic desire to bring back the “glory of Flushing” where the real desire should bem to quote you .. “revitalizing a significant community landmark and turning it into a local showcase and venue for live shows and cultural events”
“I just don’t think restoring "an old movie house” is something that holds any interest to the community at large"
Nor should it! If you put it that way, it sounds positively dreadful. But revitalizing a significant community landmark and turning it into a local showcase and venue for live shows and cultural events, as was done with the Paradise, IS something the community should be able to get behind. Again, it’s a question of education and overcoming a cultural barrier.
I agree … perhaps it’s not necessarily the residents, now versus then, but a desire to maintain something culturally significant for the community as opposed to building restaurants and triket shops then there are people.
Again .. I don’t want to demean the curent residents of Flushing. These are very hard working and wonderful people .. I just don’t think restoring “an old movie house” is something that holds any interest to the community at large
AldeNYC, I don’t think most of the current Bronx residents in the neighborhood of the Loew’s Paradise had any experience with that theater either, but they recognized it as a community resource. Perhaps a neighborhood education campaign is needed in Flushing to let people know what a valuable asset the Keith’s is. In pushing plans for a luxury high-rise, it certainly doesn’t seem the developers and politicians have ever considered what would be best for the actual residents of the area — only what would be best to line their own pockets. Outside of the Queens Historical Society, there doesn’t seem to be any real community advocacy going on. Is there some cultural tendency among the Koreans to focus on their own family businesses and shy away from the government? Who holds sway with the local Chamber of Commerce, if there is one? How can these barriers be overcome?
Don’t know if this was covered here already. This is not meant to demean the Asian community in any way shape or form. The RKO Keith's
has ben closed long before the racial makeup of Flushing became significantly Asian. Many, if not most, don’t know the history of the theater let alone even frequented it when it was still opened. I think the reason that other theaters around the country have been restored could be because the same people and perhaps their children and their grandchildren still reside in the city, town etc.
If this were the case here, I think things might be different in that there would be a real chance for the Keiths to be restored to a functioning entertainment complex .. but since a great many of the current residents in and around Flushing have no common hisotry with the theater or the area as it once was, the theater is not likey ever to be restored to its former self.
Thank you very much for the clarification on Boymelgreen & for establishing hope for a future restoration. The link you provided is truly superb! If we had a caring architect with a vision & a team of supporters (politicians included), there could be a victory. Any developer who thinks other is lazy, selfish, and unwelcomed in my opinion.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission is rarely sympathetic. What happened to all the other years? They usually do not calendar a site for a public hearing if there’s development pressure, and this does not align with the provisions of the Landmarks Law.
Boymelgreen has problems on many fronts, don’t worry they will unload this property and there will never be a 19 story condo on top of the RKO.
The achilles heel of any development here is the landmark status of even just the lobby. The NYC landmarks and preservation commission should be a sympathetic ear View link
The irony is that the main theatre is not all that complex, just an open space where there were a lot of seats. The steel truss roof and basic structure is intact. There is enough symmetry in Thomas Lamb’s design to cast and restore. This has been done before, it’s been done with volunteers and students, it’s been done non-profit and it can be done again.
If you could take a photo today it would look something like this:
View link
SWCphotography, please tell me where you have read about this. I am interested in learning more. I am greatly opposed to Boymelgreen’s project & would rather find a buyer who’s sensitive to its history.
Not uncommon. I suspect most of you guys know the story of Chicago’s Uptown Theatre. There are other examples across the country.
It’s now been 21 years – TWENTY-ONE YEARS – since the RKO closed its doors! Hard to believe it’s still in limbo. I guess it might end up like the New York State Pavilion, just rotting away until there’s no choice but to demolish it.
Now the RKO and the New York State Pavilion do have something in common: their proximity to Flushing Bay (I’m working on some docu-photos on this one). It seems that the owner/developer of the RKO, challenged by that confounded landmark status got the board to limit it to the lobby only. Then he hired an “architect” to design a 19 story condo on top – and guess what? They discovered that you have to drive hundreds of 100' steel pilings to react loads below the water table (the 2 story QTIP has 405), essentially you’d have to level the block to do this, not to mention close off Northern Blvd. ; and there is almost no room for heavy construction equipment – This block is a lot denser than when the Dave Clark 5 appeared at the RKO. But then the condo market kind of fell through this summer anyhow.
One could say that the statute is well-Huang.
Considering that Manes died over 20 years ago, the Board of Estimate died in 1990, and Huang hasn’t owned the property since 2002, I doubt any district attorney has this high on a list of priorities — even if the statute of limitations hadn’t passed, which I believe it has.
Then Huang should be investigated and prosecuted for bribery! Or has it been too long?