In late January, the Ace Hotel chain announced it would turn the United Artists Building in downtown Los Angeles into a 180-room hotel. A classic example of Spanish Gothic architecture, the building was originally built in 1927 and houses a 1,600-seat theater opened by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and the other actors who formed United Artists.
It’s official! Per today’s NY Post, the Times Square Theatre will be coming back to life after a 20 year slumber as the new home to Broadway 4D; expected to open in the Spring/Summer of 2013! Read all about it:
I would agree except that lying about finding a partner and getting exposed for it will make it worse so (unless I’m missing something) I don’t buy it.
Hmmm….How does one “save face” by lying about finding a partner? Wouldn’t that be quickly exposed and make you look even more foolish? Of course, I don’t know this developer so he could just be not be very bright. :–)
Thanks Ed, I don’t know ho wI didn’t see the link! That said, I’m not sure what to think about the photos. I thought the one shot of the red carpeted walls with the chandelier was interesting but the other shots made the interior look rather bland. This might be deceiving though. What do you think?
Relatively little is said about the theater itself except for this nugget: “The theater, with its glittering chandeliers and red-carpet walls, has a threadbare glamour.” It also calls this 1,400 seat theater a Lincoln Center of sorts for the Russian Community. I wonder how much of the original details remain.
Brooklyn! Bobby! Brooklyn! :–) Yes, 300 days a year is rather aggressive, but it doesn’t concern me in the least. It’s a great goal and there is absolutely a need for a performing arts venue of this sort in Brooklyn. I have no doubt it will be a success.
Thanks Matt, I wish people wouldn’t be so pessimistic. This restoration is a lot of work and a lot of it is in the preparation and research stage. It is not by accident that it is not scheduled for completion until 2014/2015. I have complete confidence that this theater will be fully restored, but full disclosure, I am an optimist at heart. I was also one of the few who kept saying that the city’s EDC would find a developer to take on this project when almost everyone else said it would never happen. Let’s remember that the Loews Jersey, Loews Paradise, Saint George, New Amsterdam and many others in New York were all viewed as lost causes but they are stunningly restored today. The Loews Kings will be joining that group! :–)
The theater was sold to a Great Neck, L.I.-based developer: The Parkoff Organization. Here’s a quote from the article: A spokesperson for Clearview indicated that their lease will continue under the new landlord and suggested the theater would not be closing any time soon, but did not specify the terms of the theater’s lease.
A few years back, the Chelsea Cinemas were sold and rumors were rampant that the multiplex would be razed for an apartment tower or hotel. Well, the Chelsea Cinemas have been flipped again. This time for $35MM. Rumors are flying once again. This theater was the last multiplex built in Manhattan before stadium seating. Though I’m sure it does well, it will now be expected to do even better to justify the new sales price. My guess is that this theater’s days are numbered.
I may be naive, but I would disagree about opposition from the Kings.
The Paramount belongs to LIU and, in theory, could be restored and brought back to life by them. They wouldn’t need the Kings cooperation unless LIU was looking for city funds to restore the theater. BAM also might not object as this area is increasingly a performing arts center and more venues create more business for everyone (just look at Times Square). I believe a restored Brooklyn Paramount must be in Brooklyn’s future and my hope is that it could be accomplished without city subsidies. I am fairly confident that LIU would not be permitted to gut the theater as there would be lots of protests. My guess is that they are not just going to let it sit there. I believe they will ultimately decide to restore it.
Back in 1972, when I graduated for JHS 226 in Ozone Park, our auditorium was also not big enough and so we held our graduation at Loew’s Valencia (a sister theater to the Loew’s Kings)! I was mesmerized by its beauty and saw several films there like The Ten Commandments and The Omega Man. I remember sometimes just staring at the ceiling watching the clouds roll by. It was the only Wonder Theater that I ever attended and so I was especially interested in the movement to save the one remaining Wonder Theater that was in danger. Ironically, the one theater that was abandoned for over 30 years, will likely be the one that outshines them all when it is restored and reopened to the public.
Wow Saps, what a great commentary! I will have to make it there soon to have me some Famous Dave’s Grub. It’s not realisitic to expect any of New York’s remaining Movie Palaces to be returned to showing films; as much as we all want at least ONE to be. That said, the next best thing is have them restored and put back into a use that the public is able to see the glory of what once was. A sample of how America used to spend its leisure time. I hope the restaurant is a great success as I prefer this use than any church. Of course, I still very much appreciate the churches that have saved some of our best palaces and restored them so that future generations can enjoy them. A special thank you to the churches that saved the Stanley in Jersey City, the Valencia and the Elmwood in Queens, the Gates and Metropolitan in Brooklyn, and of course, the 175th Street and Hollywood Theatres in Manhattan. The theaters that were prolonged in life by conversion to Discos didn’t fare as well, BUT it did result in many of these palaces surviving way longer than they otherwise would have. I was because of these conversions that I had the chance to see such stunners as the Academy of Music (Palladium), Club USA (The Forum) Xenon’s (Henry Miller), The Saint (Loews Commodore) and, of course, the most famous of them all, Studio 54 (Gallo Opera House). Technically, Studio 54 doesn’t count because it was never a movie house, but in my mind, a theater is a theater and I hold all of the old Broadway Legit stages in equal high regard to the other palaces. But I digress. :–) I’m thrilled to have The Liberty back in the public realm. What’s next? The Times Square? Loew’s Canal? The Brooklyn Paramount? The Coliseum? RKO Keiths Flushing? RKO Keiths Richmond Hill? What other palaces are still hidden?
There is a meeting on saving this historic theater on Thursday, January 12th….details in the article below which appeared in today’s DNAinfo.com:
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — When the Coliseum Theater, Manhattan’s oldest operating movie theater, silently closed its doors at the end of 2011, rumors of big box and drugstores replacing the 92-year-old space began to swirl uptown.
Fear that the theater would soon become a J. C. Penny’s — a rumor that turned out to be false, local leaders said — ignited interest in turning the theater into an uptown arts space for the countless artists that call Upper Manhattan home, but have few options to show their work.
Sources said the 3,500-seat movie theater built in 1920 closed because of financial problems. The historic movie palace had most recently closed down in 2002, but reopened in 2004.
With the theater’s history in mind, “Save the Coliseum” movement by a group now tentatively called the Washington Heights Arts & Movies (WHAM) formed in late December, and has now grown to more than 300 since its Dec. 21, 2011 launch.
“Let’s find a way to save and restore this faded treasure. Or make it into something even MORE wonderful. Hey, it can’t be as hard as saving The High Line,” Washington Heights dad Jeff Hoppa wrote on a Facebook page he created for residents to discuss the future of the site.
Within days the site was popping with ideas from residents on what the site could become. Now the group plans to meet to discuss how to make it a reality on Thurs., Jan. 12, at 8 p.m. at Le Cheile, 839 W. 181st St.
Uptown writer and Washington Heights resident Melissa Fendell Moschitto, 31, was the first to post about the closure on local blog Hudson Heights Gazette when she lamented the closure of the only movie theater above 125th Street in Manhattan.
She said she hoped to see the space reopen as a cultural meeting place for the countless uptown artistic treasures she has come to know in the more than seven years she has lived near the Coliseum.
“We’re at a unique time where there have been a lot of performances uptown and the community is responding to it,” she said.
“We want our own BAM,” she later added referring to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which is billed as “the home for adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas.”
Hi ZiegfeldMan! I grew up in South Ozone Park and going the Valencia was always a special treat but it happened rarely because Jamaica was so dicey back then. That said I have amazing memories of it and always will. It is also why I have a special attachment to the Kings. As a sister theater to the other 4 Wonder theaters (all of which have either been restored or in good hands) it was important to me that the Kings be saved. As for the Alden, I only remember seeing one movie there; Creepshow with Adrienne Barbaeu! :–) The theater was already split, but I was in the section that still showed the proscenium arch and I remember being awed back then. My understanding is that most of that theater might still be intact behind retail walls. One day I’d like to go back to the Valencia though I think it would bother me to see it as a church though I am very happy that it is still around.
This blurb appears in today’s Wall Street Journal and reveals that there is nothing or architectural merit that remains in this old theater:
Failing to gain respect as a historic building, the Strand Theater on Fulton Street and Rockwell place is being re-imagined as a non-classical temple for the digital age. “If this was a historically important piece of architecture, we would have treated it that way. But it is not,” says architect Thomas Leeser.
I would love for the Blade to be restored but I don’t think that is currently in the cards. I do, however, believe that they plan to restore the old marquee!
I want to go too! :–) Though I never attended the Kings whie it was an active theater, I did attend its sister theater The Valencia where I saw films like the Ten Commandments and The Omega Man. My Junior High School graduation was also there. So when I found out that the Kings was in such dire straights I attended not one, but 2 tours of the abandoned theater while the EDC was looking for developers to restore it and I was mesmerized by its beauty. In prior comments I detailed y experiences on those tours but I always had faith that the city would come through and they have. This will be Brooklyn’s pride and joy and a Jewel for the entire city. Hopefully, this will also lead to the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Paramount in the fast developing downtown area. Then Brooklyn will have, not one, but two, stunning theaters. There is room for both.
Wow!!!! I was not aware of the DeMille occupancy. I have to poke my head in there when I go to see Follies in Times Sqaure on Saturday. Thanks for the link!
Well, the owner of the Metro has finally found a new tenant though he is not saying who it is. Sadly, it appears that the interior has been gutted for use as retail. The exterior and marquee are protected.
The long vacant Art Deco Metro Theater at 2626 Broadway, between 99th and 100th streets, is set to be reborn as a retail destination, after owner Albert Bialek filed an application with the city’s Department of Buildings in late December 2011 for a $900,000 renovation that will convert the interior of the 79-year-old theater, DNAinfo reported. A retail tenant has already signed on to lease the space, which has been empty for six years, though the identity of the store was not immediately available. ”It’s something that everyone in the neighborhood will love, I think,” Bialek said.
Last year, Bialek, president of real estate consulting firm Albert Bialek Associates, gained control of the Metro, an Upper West Side landmark, from leaseholder John Souto. Souto had a 49-year lease on the property, which had formerly served as a pornography house, art-house movie theatre and two national cinema chains.
Well, the Liberty Theatre will finally be put back into use, though not as a theater. It will become a restaurant. It was announced in this morning’s NY Post as per below. I am hopeful that the interior has, in fact been restored. If anyone gets in please report back. I will do so if I have the opportunity. Thanks!
NY Post Article below:
In the midst of the holiday bustle, Famous Dave’s BBQ has opened a second location — in Times Square at 234 W. 42nd St.
The new 600-seat restaurant takes up the entire 25,000-square-foot landmarked former Liberty Box Theater, which is part of Forest City’s 42nd St. Entertainment Center retail project.
Famous Dave’s can accommodate up to 1,500 people for parties, when not everyone is seated.
This is the first tenant for the theater since it became part of the redevelopment of Times Square, and it can be found near Madame Tussauds and the eateries Dave & Busters and Applebee’s.
Negotiations for the space, with a blended asking rent of $200 a square foot started in 2007 when Famous Dave’s had already opened a spread on West 47th Street. The pact was finally struck in 2009, but it took all this time to open due to the painstaking historic installation and various required permissions.
“It was the longest deal you could ever imagine, because it was a net-lease with both Forest City and the 42nd Street Redevelopment Corp., which is run by the state,” said Andrew A. Pittel of his eponymous company, which represented the Benmoha Restaurant Group in the deal. “Every ‘i’ had to be looked at and every ‘t’ had to be crossed, and they had to hire certain architects and engineers because it was under the jurisdiction of Landmarks.”
I just came across this on the msnbc website…….
In late January, the Ace Hotel chain announced it would turn the United Artists Building in downtown Los Angeles into a 180-room hotel. A classic example of Spanish Gothic architecture, the building was originally built in 1927 and houses a 1,600-seat theater opened by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and the other actors who formed United Artists.
Anyone have any additional information?
It’s official! Per today’s NY Post, the Times Square Theatre will be coming back to life after a 20 year slumber as the new home to Broadway 4D; expected to open in the Spring/Summer of 2013! Read all about it:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/it_showtime_Qb9B0E4J2d7gIXqIErcbFK
I too remember seeing Crossed Swords at Radio City and liking it a lot as a young teen.
Hmmm, we’ll see. It’s a soap Opera indeed!
I would agree except that lying about finding a partner and getting exposed for it will make it worse so (unless I’m missing something) I don’t buy it.
Hmmm….How does one “save face” by lying about finding a partner? Wouldn’t that be quickly exposed and make you look even more foolish? Of course, I don’t know this developer so he could just be not be very bright. :–)
Indeed, the developer has found a partner, though the plan still includes “saving” a restored Lobby.
Thanks Ed, I don’t know ho wI didn’t see the link! That said, I’m not sure what to think about the photos. I thought the one shot of the red carpeted walls with the chandelier was interesting but the other shots made the interior look rather bland. This might be deceiving though. What do you think?
A big article in today’s NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/arts/millennium-theater-in-brighton-beach-as-link-to-old-country.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=millennium%20brooklyn&st=cse
Relatively little is said about the theater itself except for this nugget: “The theater, with its glittering chandeliers and red-carpet walls, has a threadbare glamour.” It also calls this 1,400 seat theater a Lincoln Center of sorts for the Russian Community. I wonder how much of the original details remain.
Brooklyn! Bobby! Brooklyn! :–) Yes, 300 days a year is rather aggressive, but it doesn’t concern me in the least. It’s a great goal and there is absolutely a need for a performing arts venue of this sort in Brooklyn. I have no doubt it will be a success.
Thanks Matt, I wish people wouldn’t be so pessimistic. This restoration is a lot of work and a lot of it is in the preparation and research stage. It is not by accident that it is not scheduled for completion until 2014/2015. I have complete confidence that this theater will be fully restored, but full disclosure, I am an optimist at heart. I was also one of the few who kept saying that the city’s EDC would find a developer to take on this project when almost everyone else said it would never happen. Let’s remember that the Loews Jersey, Loews Paradise, Saint George, New Amsterdam and many others in New York were all viewed as lost causes but they are stunningly restored today. The Loews Kings will be joining that group! :–)
The theater was sold to a Great Neck, L.I.-based developer: The Parkoff Organization. Here’s a quote from the article: A spokesperson for Clearview indicated that their lease will continue under the new landlord and suggested the theater would not be closing any time soon, but did not specify the terms of the theater’s lease.
A few years back, the Chelsea Cinemas were sold and rumors were rampant that the multiplex would be razed for an apartment tower or hotel. Well, the Chelsea Cinemas have been flipped again. This time for $35MM. Rumors are flying once again. This theater was the last multiplex built in Manhattan before stadium seating. Though I’m sure it does well, it will now be expected to do even better to justify the new sales price. My guess is that this theater’s days are numbered.
I may be naive, but I would disagree about opposition from the Kings.
The Paramount belongs to LIU and, in theory, could be restored and brought back to life by them. They wouldn’t need the Kings cooperation unless LIU was looking for city funds to restore the theater. BAM also might not object as this area is increasingly a performing arts center and more venues create more business for everyone (just look at Times Square). I believe a restored Brooklyn Paramount must be in Brooklyn’s future and my hope is that it could be accomplished without city subsidies. I am fairly confident that LIU would not be permitted to gut the theater as there would be lots of protests. My guess is that they are not just going to let it sit there. I believe they will ultimately decide to restore it.
Back in 1972, when I graduated for JHS 226 in Ozone Park, our auditorium was also not big enough and so we held our graduation at Loew’s Valencia (a sister theater to the Loew’s Kings)! I was mesmerized by its beauty and saw several films there like The Ten Commandments and The Omega Man. I remember sometimes just staring at the ceiling watching the clouds roll by. It was the only Wonder Theater that I ever attended and so I was especially interested in the movement to save the one remaining Wonder Theater that was in danger. Ironically, the one theater that was abandoned for over 30 years, will likely be the one that outshines them all when it is restored and reopened to the public.
Wow Saps, what a great commentary! I will have to make it there soon to have me some Famous Dave’s Grub. It’s not realisitic to expect any of New York’s remaining Movie Palaces to be returned to showing films; as much as we all want at least ONE to be. That said, the next best thing is have them restored and put back into a use that the public is able to see the glory of what once was. A sample of how America used to spend its leisure time. I hope the restaurant is a great success as I prefer this use than any church. Of course, I still very much appreciate the churches that have saved some of our best palaces and restored them so that future generations can enjoy them. A special thank you to the churches that saved the Stanley in Jersey City, the Valencia and the Elmwood in Queens, the Gates and Metropolitan in Brooklyn, and of course, the 175th Street and Hollywood Theatres in Manhattan. The theaters that were prolonged in life by conversion to Discos didn’t fare as well, BUT it did result in many of these palaces surviving way longer than they otherwise would have. I was because of these conversions that I had the chance to see such stunners as the Academy of Music (Palladium), Club USA (The Forum) Xenon’s (Henry Miller), The Saint (Loews Commodore) and, of course, the most famous of them all, Studio 54 (Gallo Opera House). Technically, Studio 54 doesn’t count because it was never a movie house, but in my mind, a theater is a theater and I hold all of the old Broadway Legit stages in equal high regard to the other palaces. But I digress. :–) I’m thrilled to have The Liberty back in the public realm. What’s next? The Times Square? Loew’s Canal? The Brooklyn Paramount? The Coliseum? RKO Keiths Flushing? RKO Keiths Richmond Hill? What other palaces are still hidden?
There is a meeting on saving this historic theater on Thursday, January 12th….details in the article below which appeared in today’s DNAinfo.com:
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — When the Coliseum Theater, Manhattan’s oldest operating movie theater, silently closed its doors at the end of 2011, rumors of big box and drugstores replacing the 92-year-old space began to swirl uptown.
Fear that the theater would soon become a J. C. Penny’s — a rumor that turned out to be false, local leaders said — ignited interest in turning the theater into an uptown arts space for the countless artists that call Upper Manhattan home, but have few options to show their work.
Sources said the 3,500-seat movie theater built in 1920 closed because of financial problems. The historic movie palace had most recently closed down in 2002, but reopened in 2004.
With the theater’s history in mind, “Save the Coliseum” movement by a group now tentatively called the Washington Heights Arts & Movies (WHAM) formed in late December, and has now grown to more than 300 since its Dec. 21, 2011 launch.
“Let’s find a way to save and restore this faded treasure. Or make it into something even MORE wonderful. Hey, it can’t be as hard as saving The High Line,” Washington Heights dad Jeff Hoppa wrote on a Facebook page he created for residents to discuss the future of the site.
Within days the site was popping with ideas from residents on what the site could become. Now the group plans to meet to discuss how to make it a reality on Thurs., Jan. 12, at 8 p.m. at Le Cheile, 839 W. 181st St.
Uptown writer and Washington Heights resident Melissa Fendell Moschitto, 31, was the first to post about the closure on local blog Hudson Heights Gazette when she lamented the closure of the only movie theater above 125th Street in Manhattan.
She said she hoped to see the space reopen as a cultural meeting place for the countless uptown artistic treasures she has come to know in the more than seven years she has lived near the Coliseum. “We’re at a unique time where there have been a lot of performances uptown and the community is responding to it,” she said. “We want our own BAM,” she later added referring to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which is billed as “the home for adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas.”
Hi ZiegfeldMan! I grew up in South Ozone Park and going the Valencia was always a special treat but it happened rarely because Jamaica was so dicey back then. That said I have amazing memories of it and always will. It is also why I have a special attachment to the Kings. As a sister theater to the other 4 Wonder theaters (all of which have either been restored or in good hands) it was important to me that the Kings be saved. As for the Alden, I only remember seeing one movie there; Creepshow with Adrienne Barbaeu! :–) The theater was already split, but I was in the section that still showed the proscenium arch and I remember being awed back then. My understanding is that most of that theater might still be intact behind retail walls. One day I’d like to go back to the Valencia though I think it would bother me to see it as a church though I am very happy that it is still around.
This blurb appears in today’s Wall Street Journal and reveals that there is nothing or architectural merit that remains in this old theater:
Failing to gain respect as a historic building, the Strand Theater on Fulton Street and Rockwell place is being re-imagined as a non-classical temple for the digital age. “If this was a historically important piece of architecture, we would have treated it that way. But it is not,” says architect Thomas Leeser.
I would love for the Blade to be restored but I don’t think that is currently in the cards. I do, however, believe that they plan to restore the old marquee!
I want to go too! :–) Though I never attended the Kings whie it was an active theater, I did attend its sister theater The Valencia where I saw films like the Ten Commandments and The Omega Man. My Junior High School graduation was also there. So when I found out that the Kings was in such dire straights I attended not one, but 2 tours of the abandoned theater while the EDC was looking for developers to restore it and I was mesmerized by its beauty. In prior comments I detailed y experiences on those tours but I always had faith that the city would come through and they have. This will be Brooklyn’s pride and joy and a Jewel for the entire city. Hopefully, this will also lead to the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Paramount in the fast developing downtown area. Then Brooklyn will have, not one, but two, stunning theaters. There is room for both.
Thanks Jim!!!!
Wow!!!! I was not aware of the DeMille occupancy. I have to poke my head in there when I go to see Follies in Times Sqaure on Saturday. Thanks for the link!
Well, the owner of the Metro has finally found a new tenant though he is not saying who it is. Sadly, it appears that the interior has been gutted for use as retail. The exterior and marquee are protected.
The long vacant Art Deco Metro Theater at 2626 Broadway, between 99th and 100th streets, is set to be reborn as a retail destination, after owner Albert Bialek filed an application with the city’s Department of Buildings in late December 2011 for a $900,000 renovation that will convert the interior of the 79-year-old theater, DNAinfo reported. A retail tenant has already signed on to lease the space, which has been empty for six years, though the identity of the store was not immediately available. ”It’s something that everyone in the neighborhood will love, I think,” Bialek said.
Last year, Bialek, president of real estate consulting firm Albert Bialek Associates, gained control of the Metro, an Upper West Side landmark, from leaseholder John Souto. Souto had a 49-year lease on the property, which had formerly served as a pornography house, art-house movie theatre and two national cinema chains.
Well, the Liberty Theatre will finally be put back into use, though not as a theater. It will become a restaurant. It was announced in this morning’s NY Post as per below. I am hopeful that the interior has, in fact been restored. If anyone gets in please report back. I will do so if I have the opportunity. Thanks!
NY Post Article below:
In the midst of the holiday bustle, Famous Dave’s BBQ has opened a second location — in Times Square at 234 W. 42nd St. The new 600-seat restaurant takes up the entire 25,000-square-foot landmarked former Liberty Box Theater, which is part of Forest City’s 42nd St. Entertainment Center retail project. Famous Dave’s can accommodate up to 1,500 people for parties, when not everyone is seated. This is the first tenant for the theater since it became part of the redevelopment of Times Square, and it can be found near Madame Tussauds and the eateries Dave & Busters and Applebee’s.
Negotiations for the space, with a blended asking rent of $200 a square foot started in 2007 when Famous Dave’s had already opened a spread on West 47th Street. The pact was finally struck in 2009, but it took all this time to open due to the painstaking historic installation and various required permissions. “It was the longest deal you could ever imagine, because it was a net-lease with both Forest City and the 42nd Street Redevelopment Corp., which is run by the state,” said Andrew A. Pittel of his eponymous company, which represented the Benmoha Restaurant Group in the deal. “Every ‘i’ had to be looked at and every ‘t’ had to be crossed, and they had to hire certain architects and engineers because it was under the jurisdiction of Landmarks.”