There’s been construction activity at the long-vacant Metro Theater on Broadway between 99th and 100th streets, and that’s got tongues flapping.
The Metro, which opened in 1933, showed films for decades (including pornographic ones for a brief sad period) before it closed in 2005. In 2012, a Texas company called the Alamo Drafthouse said it would open a new movie theater in the space, and allow people to eat at their seats. But the chain backed away in 2013 as its costs mounted.
It’s been empty and dormant since then. But in the past couple of weeks readers have been writing in with news of activity in the space — old materials are being removed and construction workers have been working there. Earlier this week, we heard the most bombastic rumor yet:
“I just walked by the long-vacant Metro Theater on the east side of Broadway between 99 and 100 streets. Work is underway, and I asked if something is coming in. One of the workmen said Walmart. Really now! The idea of a Walmart in the Upper West Side seems utterly out of character – not sure I’m happy about it.”
A what? The worker might have been having some fun with our tipster. Wal-Mart faces very long odds at opening a new store in the city. Politicians, including Mayor de Blasio, have spoken out against the company, and it would be just about impossible for the company to quietly start construction here.
So we checked with Councilman Mark Levine, who represents the area. Levine has been anxious to get that space filled, as several potential deals to bring new retail tenants have fallen through in the past few years, both before and after the Alamo’s failed attempt.
Levine brushed off the Wal-Mart rumor but said he hears “it will be a fitness outfit. They are in final stages of lease negotiations.” But he added “though as you know many prior deals at the metro have fallen apart last minute.” In fact, fitness company Planet Fitness had been close to signing a deal just a couple of months ago — so close that tenants at the Ariel West had been notified — but that deal fell apart.
This is a beautiful space. How about showing movies, you know, like a movie theater.
haha, yes now there’s a novel idea!! seriously, we could use a movie theater up here. just please not another bank.
They tried, nobody came. The most uncomfortable seats and steep climb were undoubtedly factors in this.
Unfortunately the only thing left of the movie theater is the facade. The interior space was completely gutted during the construction of the apartment tower and left an empty brick walled box. (I think there were photos on this here website during that time.) So the chances of it ever returning to screen films is zero. There was nothing for The Alamo to renovate.
Yeah–totally agree!
O Alamo Brewhouse, where art thou?
OMG some competion for West End Fitness!!!!! Perhaps we may again have hot water for showers.
Amazing! That place hive health clubs a bad name. Not an easy thing to do!
It would be nice if they kept it as a movie theater! And design it like the one on 84th Street. each seat is a recliner! Very, very comfortable seats! It’s AWESOME! The only problem with the one on 84th St. is the genres they show are usually slapstick action movies, nothing really worth while and worth the cost of a ticket. So let’s have a great Movie Theater in that space!!!
Just out of curiosity, why the opposition to having a Walmart here? Isn’t it like a Woolworths…a variety of merchandise at low prices?
Walmart would definitely devalue the neighborhood. Not to mention it’s terrible business practices. I will never shop at a Walmart, gross.
Politics, it’s a non-union store and has made efforts to remain so. Associated, West Side Market and Whole Foods on the UWS are also non-union. Walmart sells locally grown organic foods outside NYC and would be a competitor.
Walmart has been blamed for stressing the social services of small municipalities and the closing of mom and pop stores. Many of the big chain stores are following the business model of Walmart, but are allowed in NYC. Further changes in labor and minimum wage laws can fix some of the issues.
It’s very low end merchandise.
Good gracious! We can’t have that in *our* neighborhood, now, can we?? It might bring down the value of our luxury no-poor-door-here condo!
Other than the Nouveau Riche snob factor, I too would like to know the objection to WalMart.
My objection to WalMart is they pay their workers less than nothing then we subsidize them with food stamps and Medicaid while the Waltons get rich.
Additionally, they limit their hours to avoid paying benefits. So instead of hiring one full timer to do a job, they use two or three part timers because it keeps the costs down. Among other issues.
I think they still pay competitive wages, relatively-speaking. It is a decent job for many grateful people. I thought the issues were more about putting small businesses out (for which Walmart is hardly the lone offender – and even “small” companies are often owned by larger ones – they surely aren’t limited to places that appear to be big box stores, besides look at how many industries practically have monopolies anyway) and about things like purchasing from vendors in such large quantities that they could practically dictate what price they wanted to pay and things like that.
just what the UWS needs…another gym for instagram zombies…what a shame
What’s wrong with gyms? And Instagram? And zombies? The uws needs more of all three
Agreed Diego! The last thing we need is MORE people to be healthy and fit. It’s terrible to see NYSC and Equinox crowded with people that have normal Bodyfat % who are able to walk up the stairs without getting out of breath.
What, another Equinox?
Alamo made a mistake not opening there (tho I understand it is a franchisee type company, so whoever was bringing it probably just didn’t have the money).
Still, Alamo would’ve made a mint there.
Absolutely agree! They could’ve turned it into a movie theater/bar.
I had no idea Alamo was a franchise. It was started by a Rice University grad…and as such I was also eager to have it in the ‘hood. But it seems like the cost and hassle of trying to renovate that space was just too much. Hopefully the gym is better prepared.
Hear, hear!
Sorry folks, looks like there is nothing going on here. The whole interior was gutted a number of years ago and the roof is sagging in and has years of major water damage, going back to before the latest renovation in perp for Urban Outfitters.
Alamo didn’t move in because the usual self appointed community leaders made getting an SLA permit long and expensive for them, along with throwing other roadblocks in their way. Now we have a building that has been open to the weather for almost 5 years and unless a tenant steps up with a lot of $$$ to stabilize it, I would not be surprised if DOB soon labeled it a hazardous building. Remember they sold the air rights to the condo next door so they building is basically worthless. It would be much cheaper to take it down and build a new 2 story building. Only the pink terra cota is landmarked not anything else.
There are no permits pulled and/or existing for the site as of today. The work being done was to plug some major leaks/holes in the roof. I can see the roof from my apt and the sag in it has gotten worse and worse over the yeats. The last permits are from 2012 and after that conditions of the site went so down hill that the a stop work order was issued “BOROUGH COMMISSIONER REVOKE PERMIT FORJOB APPLICATION #104803875 STOP WORK ORDER SERVED”. It is VERY rare for Borough Commissioner to get involved.
While I hope something will come in to the site, I’m not hopeful as the landmarking GREARTLY limits the number of people willing to be tenants.
Where are you getting your air rights information? St. Michael’s sale of air rights had more to contribute than the Metro.
Would be great if you could send some photos into WSR of what the space looks like from above!
Please research your community leaders before you say something like this: “Alamo didn’t move in because the usual self appointed community leaders made getting an SLA permit long and expensive for them,”
Alamo breezed through the SLA permit process with ease. There was no roadblock at any point and a round of applause was given at CB7 when the application came through because folks were so excited this space might finally be filled.
The SLA permit was only approved after the self appointed got legal letters about some of their actions, and they back off a bit.
Any community board has no real power, they are advisory only, they basically just pass what ever the most recent plan the “self appointed” put in front of them, on a real and/or imagined problem. Case in pointy there are now calls to “fix” the fix, of the fix, of the fix, of the fix these folks pushed on the area at 96 and B’way. Not mention what was done with the highway on/off at 95/96 and the traffic issues that it created. (Before the comments come, no I don’t own a car. I walk and take bus/subways)
As for being excited, you must have forgotten the marches, petitioning etc that the surrounding neighbors did, especially when they saw that Alamo has had problems with its no noise in the theater policy in other areas. They also raised the issue that there was going to be no space to wait inside so there customers would be lining up outside year round. Think Carnegie Hall lobby small.
Alamos people crunched the numbers and didn’t want to have a drawn out fight just to open a movie theater. By the way the $$$ would be from the bar and lounge not from the theater. For comparison think the Jewish Home to be built on 97th street, that is an as of right building and its been drawn out for years.
Thanks for that info. Sad. Loved that theater.
Thanks for the real-deal answer Robert. This owner just makes stuff up. He will say anything to keep Mark Levine et al off his back. He has spun so many stories about almost-signed tenants it makes one’s head spin.
While I hope I’m wrong, this spaces has been “this close” to being rented and then nothing over and over again. When I see doors actually open for biz by a new tenant then I’ll believe it. This has been going on since at least 2009 and I believe before that.
The same co that owns Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, were the ones that redid it into a movie house, before that it was a Spanish langue pron house.
I hope whoever moves in, gym zombies or not, has the good sense to leave the deco character of the facade in place. Why is it not protected???
The exterior is landmarked and therefore cannot be changed. (Though the supporting columns on the sidewalk are recent and hopefully will be removed by the next tenant.) But not so for the interior, which was, as noted above, completely gutted to raw space.
Come on guys. The Metro has become such an eye sore. If a company thought they would make money wouldn’t someone have been there already. It’s time the Landmark Preservation takes the Metro off their list. Movie theatres can’t make money unless they have a lot of screens. A small theatre won’t be able to financially survive. It has just become so ugly and there isn’t anything about it that screams “keep me”. I also worry that the overhang is going to collapse one day. No one is maintaining this ugly structure.
The façade can be removed and stored for future use on the UWS. This would make it possible to demolish the building and start new on the site. Questions regarding the development possibilities must first be answered before proposing any plan.
I don’t know if you can even do that. If they take it off the building to “store” it somewhere someone is joining to have to pay for a big space and odds are no one is going to want to put it up on their building.
Maybe the Museum of the City of NY would display it? You’re right though: it may be historic, but it’s not so beautiful that another building will rush to display it
“Where are you getting your air rights information?”
For those that doubt the info……
Take a look at the link below, next to last para. The DOB also has all the info on the building.You also Goggle it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/realestate/commercial/after-legal-battle-manhattans-metro-theater-may-acquire-new-life.html
This was the closest theater to my home growing up. I probably watched my first movie there. I remember this was a really uncomfortable theater with weird elevated seating. But every time I pass by and see they still have that abandoned facade from decades ago hiding behind metal bars really breaks my heart. This should be a theater, but they would probably make more money from a gym for all the yuppies that ruined the goddamn neighborhood.
i’m surprised Wework hasn’t made an attempt at this space
I have lived on the UWS for 11 years and saw a few movies there before it closed (2005?) – loved the exterior, loved that the movies were first run and half the price of anywhere else in town, and, when I found out that this was the movie theater (at least the exterior) where Woody Allen sees the Marx Brothers in “Hannah and Her Sisters”, I felt as though I was lucky enough to have this in my backyard.
When it closed, I was heartbroken.. and watching it decay over the years has been even sadder – the endless flyers pasted to the front, the missing “R” in the Metro neon on the marquee, and the ever probability that said marquee will collapse some day.
It’s probably too late for a full renovation if the roof is that bad off and with so many empty storefronts in the neighborhood (like, for example, the adjacent storefront where the florists were for a nanosecond), I don’t see why anyone would rush in to renovate it. It feels like the days of “because it’s awesome and worth preserving” are long gone from NYC.
I always had dreams that it could be a revival/art house theater by night and a space for local educational theater groups to meet during the days -… but who would pay for any of that because none of it would make money. If a financial institution would plow some money into it as a tax write/community good faith gesture, investment in the community… that would be awesome. But I think Trump/Palin would be co-presidents before anyone will be doing that.
Better to preserve what we can with the City of NY museum and dismantle the building, before it implodes and someone gets hurt (and even typing that feels like such a betrayal somehow!)
Unfortunately there is no Jackie O to champion preserving the Metro. 🙁
thanks for sharing that, Andrew! i never knew that was the theater in “Hannah’, that is amazing! i’ll make sure to pay a tribute the next time I walk by (being careful that it won’t fall on me!).
Lovely, heartfelt essay.
Keep the faith. Things go around.