Loew's King Theatre To Be Restored
After years of talking about it, the city announced yesterday that it had finally found developer to restore and run the historic Loew’s King Theatre at 1025 Flatbush Avenue. Under the plan structured by the EDC, the Houston-based ACE Theatrical Group, which has restored a number of historic theaters around the country, would put up…
After years of talking about it, the city announced yesterday that it had finally found developer to restore and run the historic Loew’s King Theatre at 1025 Flatbush Avenue. Under the plan structured by the EDC, the Houston-based ACE Theatrical Group, which has restored a number of historic theaters around the country, would put up $5 million towards converting the building, most recently used in 1977 as a movie theater, to a performance space, while the city would kick in $50 million in development funds and another $15 million in tax credits. We feel like we have a deal we can deliver on, said Seth W. Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. We are confident this project is going to move forward. The plan is for the refurbished theater to host approximately 250 live events, including concerts, theatrical performances and community events.
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Photo by tony10036
Great news! Next in line is the Loews Pitkin.
Brenda,
Thank you for such eloquent and insightful commentary.
New York City is one of the only cities in the country that does not require local history as part of the curriculum of its schools. I remember my disbelief at being told that by my 7th grade Social Studies teacher.
Great news, I hope the pull it off. Excellent commentary from Brenda, thanks.
Yay Marty!
I’m told he attended the court hearing on the threatened MacDonnough Street houses yesterday. What’s new with that? Are we dropping the ball? Have the house been saved or are they still in jeopardy?
Love him or hate’him, Marty certainly champions projects which bring disparate groups together for the collective good of the borough. Great public places with top-notch programs and a local sports team identity helps keep secterianism at bay. If you doubt that, go see Invictus
If the massive parking lot behind the LK theater (you can see part of it in this satellite image) could be converted into a garage, it would go a long way towards easing the parking situation:
http://www.planetplg.com/images/loews-sat.jpg
Well said, Brenda.
Awesome news! It was always just heartbreaking to walk or drive by this huge old theatre sitting there silent and waiting to come back alive. I know we’ll be supportive of this theatre in every way – from donations to memberships to attending events. Many many residents in all the Flatbush neighborhoods will do so I’m sure, and being that they’re all very organized neighborhoods with active community organizations and blogs and cultural groups I’d be optimistic about the theatre’s success. Not sure the Brooklyn college neighborhood is capable of providing the same thing, Benson. That’s a very specific kind of community there. I wouldn’t compare the two at all.
Good point about parking; unless they develop an adjacent lot as a garage, there basically is none, and the immediate surrounding area, while “vibrant” (NY Timesspeak) with discount stores and fast food joints, may still scare off a lot of foot and subway traffic from more gentrified areas. Another eXCELLENT point: the Kings as a golden venue to bring Caribbean culture in the area to the next level (although it’s true that Whitman Center at Brooklyn College has excellent programming and facilities appealing to all Brooklyn’s big ethnic groups every year).
This brings up a very important point: surrounding community as stakeholder. The entire Flatbush Ave. strip there between Church Ave. and Cortelyou–the Dutch Reformed Church, Erasmus High, even the Art Deco Sears–used to be the core of the historic village of Flatbush, and later the upscale hub of Jewish middle-class Brooklyn shopping. E-bay is full of postcards of its marvels from 1900 through the WWII era. But rapid turnover in population, like that experienced by this area in recent decades, tends to erase historical memory; and folks still struggling to establish themselves in a new culture and economy are not prime candidates to put local historic preservation as a high priority, aesthetically or politically. As the Caribbean community moves into its second, third and more generations here, getting them psychically and economically invested in the historic heritage of old Flatbush will be a worthwhile challenge, and essential to keeping these treasures as living resources instead of Walking Tour Destinations for White Folks from the Brownstone Belt.
Example of sad lost opportunity: Years ago, as a Brooklyn Botanic Garden tour guide, I had a group of kids on a tour from Erasmus High, sullen, angry and in a truancy-prevention program. I started our mutual introduction by expressing admiration for their magnificent and historic (if now troubled) school, founded by Alexander Hamilton and other colonial luminaries and attended by celebs including (if memory serves) Barbra Streisand and Bobby Fischer. None had a clue about its great past; they thought the historic gem in the courtyard was a storage shed; and their only comment about their alma mater was, “It sucks.” Any school in that building (which is a few blocks from the Loews Kings and the 200-year-old Dutch church!) should have made living history the core of its honor and its mission. Now the historic building at its heart is at risk of ruin, and those kids were denied the opportunity to participate in their community’s heritage through effective education. Yet I fear many will tend to write off the “locals” as stakeholders in any Flatbush historic ventures because of cultural unfamiliarity with Flatbush’s Dutch and Jewish past. That would be a huge mistake. Time to get creative with partnerships here!