Updated 5:45 p.m. on Friday.
By Gus Saltonstall
The plan to reopen the Metro Theater as an upscale movie theater location is over.
“Disappointing update: This plan has fallen through, due to the bankruptcy of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine wrote on Friday morning. “Further complicated by the recent death of the longtime owner of the Metro.”
“It’s back to the drawing board yet again,” he added. “I will continue to fight to bring this gem back.”
A spokesperson from Alamo Drafthouse Cinema disputed Levine’s claim, though, that the theater would not be reopening because of the movie theater chain’s 2021 bankruptcy.
“The independent theater group was 100% committed to moving forward with this project at the Metro Theater location with liquor license and building permit secured, and contractor hired,” the spokesperson said, while instead stating that the reason for the project collapsing was down to Al Bialik’s estate, the longtime owner of the theater who recently died.
While many people referred to the incoming cinema within Metro Theater as a new Alamo Drafthouse Cinema location — it was instead a cinema concept spearheaded by new owners that had received funding from Alamo Drafthouse — not a new outpost of the chain.
Tim League, the founder of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, previously explained to Community Board 7 that while the project is “largely funded by Alamo, we’re trying to establish a little bit higher-end brand.
The failed movie-theater plan means locals will have to continue to wait for the reopening of the historic theater on West 100th Street and Broadway, which has been shuttered since 2005.
It was announced in 2022 to great fanfare that the theater would be reopened as an upscale and dine-in movie theater. Representatives for the theater went in front of Community Board 7 to lay out the details, and also applied for a liquor license.
While communication and updates from Alamo Drafthouse team stalled in 2023, there was renewed hope in September when Metro Theater received a Conditional Approval letter from the New York State Liquor Authority.
It was a positive development that meant the theater’s license would be approved if they met certain conditions. The general public took this to mean that once the liquor license was approved, the theater would open.
Now we know that is not the case.
The reopening of the Metro Theater is unfortunately back to page one.
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Look people a movie theater isn’t gonna happen there after all this time. Can’t we just knock the damn thing down and build some apartments already? Boring but better than another two decades of vacant decay.
We don’t need any more overpriced apartments in the neighborhood.
But a good movie theater (there used to be several between 96 – 110)
would be a service to mankind.
Look I’d love a cool indie movie theater too but it’s been decades vacant and it’s not like the movie theater business has gotten better in that time. Everyone saying it’s so perfect for a movie theater should go scrape up some bank loans and have a go at it. In 20 years we will still have a vacant decaying eyesore there.
Not to mention that a new theater is unlikely to ever be built, and this one is quite charming, and just the right size.
Actually, more overpriced apts are exactly what will help the neighborhood as it will open up supply.
Supply for whom, exactly? What needs to be opened up are warehoused apartments!
The building cannot be demolished. It’s landmarked. There is no solution here unless the LPC (Landmarks Preservation Commission) loosens its grip and allows modifications to the building to attract retailers other than movie theaters, which are a dying industry.
Nope. Zoning exists for a reason. Film Forum, Film Society, the Angelika, Nighthawk, IFC and the Quad are all first rate theaters.
NYC is a cinema city. Always has been.
You are welcome to lease the site and have a go at it.
No, you can’t. It is landmarked. And there are no air rights. What you see is pretty much what you got. But as a member of the group the Friends of the Metro Theater, we are working feverishly to come up with a new plan, please stay tuned.
If nothing else, let the Joyce Theater run it as an uptown branch, or a classical music organization, etc.
Or an uptown Film Forum, even better. Or New Plaza Cinema.
This building is landmarked? Because of its art deco exterior? Seems like landmarking being carried too far.
The Metro’s owners sold their air rights to the building next door, which has windows all the way down to the Metro’s roofline along the property line. As a result, any housing on this lot would be limited to maybe four stories. Finding some sort of commercial use is pretty much the only option.
Affordable housing?
The outside is a gem but is the inside. They broke it up into a multi-theater decades ago. Are any of the original features of the interior of the theater still intact? At what point is an alternate use considered.? As beautiful as the outside is this has been a blight on the neighborhood for decades now.
Only the exterior of Tom’s Diner at 112th and Broadway was used for Seinfeld but is nonetheless iconic. Landmarked buildings always have renovated apartments inside. There are no more new movie theaters and the ones that exist are mostly chains. How about a revival house that shows classic films like the Thalia used to show on a big screen which one can mostly watch on Turner Classic Movies. The art houses that remain rarely show those.
I peeked inside through a door while some work was being done last Summer. Essentially, it is gutted as far as I could see.
The inside is gutted, a brick box.
From Wiki: Although the theater’s interior was demolished after it was closed in 2005, the original facade remains intact as of 2023 and is a New York City designated landmark
When you landmark a windowless facade, it makes it hard to really build anything
This was obvious. Agree with others. Just knock it down at this point and build apartments with commercial and restaurants on ground floor.
No! We need to preserve some sky for those of us without country homes to escape to.
This is NYC! We don’t need a movie theater that serves food with the many good places to eat all around . I don’t know how their business works but if they’re serving food during a movie, that could be very distracting to serious moviegoers. We need a good multi screen theater in this neighborhood. I miss the old Metro. We used to go there a lot.
All the. AMC theaters serve food
I went to Cinema Village once for a double-feature, and took a couple of slices of pizza in to eat quietly. And when I began taking mouthfuls, a guy sitting by me got very mad at me for eating.
— “The reopening of the Metro Theater is unfortunately back to page one.”
You mean “back to SQUARE one”. The reopening of the Metro Theater certainly will be reported on “page” one, when (and if) it ever happens, but you’ve made clear that we are nowhere near there yet.
Gee. I wish someone could support New Plaza Cinema to help them take over the Metro. They are slowly becoming *more* than a movie venue, but a community organization.
But they’re a bit too far away. no? That was one of the problems with Symphony Space.
That…would be awesome
That’s a great idea!
This neighborhood is not just in need of a movie theater or a venue for shows and movies; it requires a cultural center where our community can come together. As a member of the NEW Friends of the Metro Theater group, I want to emphasize that we are fully committed to making this vision a reality and stay tuned!
Raise foundation money (hah) to build a concert hall/theater on the lot.
Yes this is a setback for those of us (New Friends of Metro Theatre supporters and others) committed to seeing a film and/or performing arts-oriented venue open in that space. But hey, Rome (not to mention NYC) wasn’t built in a day, so we’ve just got to keep doing what we can to make it clear to the “powers that be” that the community will support the eventual right operator of that beautiful art deco venue.
As President of NEW Friends of Metro Theater, we are undaunted by this news. We remain deeply committed to the reopening of our beloved Metro Theater as a film and community space for our neighborhood.
We are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to light up this iconic location. Please join our Facebook page and follow us.
But you guys don’t own it and really have no say. And unfortunately it is landmarked, so will have very little interest. Encourage it to be opened up at this point to any commercial endeavor. Maybe a restaurant, a store, a business.
I am glad Alamo Drafthouse fell through! It would have been a home for more RATS! And who needs people eating and talking during a film or show!! Good riddance!
I have a serious/honest question… are there any laws or regulations about leaving buildings to decay like this? It seems that in the last 20 years a reasonable agreement could have been reached to find a tenant. Is it because the owner won’t budge on rent? Or is the building that far into disrepair? Obviously now it needs a lot of work, but what about from 2005-2010 for example?
If anyone actually looked at the conditions to the conditional liquor license approval, you’d actually realize that this was going nowhere. The conditions can be briefly summarized as (a) actually sign a lease, (b) actually submit a plan for the space and (c) actually build it. Not promising after a deal was supposedly agreed two years ago. In any event my main hope for the Metro is that I am not walking under the marquee when it collapses.
I think the outside of the Metro is indeed beautiful, and deserves its landmark status. But whether you agree or not, take a good luck at the size of that building—and its location, cheek-by-jowl with two other buildings. Constructing any useful number of apartments would be impossibly expensive—if it is possible at all. We need to think about something else.
The building is in total disrepair and ready to collapse. There is nothing “landmarked” about it. The first floor and entrance are completely gutted. The city should use eminent domain and allow it to be sold to someone else for another business. It’s dangerous, ugly, and ruins the neighborhood.
I was involved in soliciting bids for the renovation of the Metro. Worked closely with the Owner, the Tenant and their Design Teams. We had made our recommendation to award the General Contractor scope in September of ‘22 when the deal stalled. As a resident of the UWS I was thrilled at the prospect of bringing this tarnished gem back to life, and broken hearted that it didn’t come to fruition. The inheritors of the estate seem to have no interest in investing further in the building. Prospects for other options seem dim. Landmark facade and sold air rights greatly limit possibilities. Sigh…
Heirs are rarely great people. It’s always about the quick money for them. Just read Dickens.
The obvious solution is for Columbia University to be a good neighbor and take over the site as a historic performing arts venue that its students could use and perhaps could be available to rent for weddings and parties and such. They’ve got the money!
Marvelous! Yet another Columbia venue closed to the public as it has done with everything between 125th and 133rd from Broadway to 12th Ave.
A performing arts venue would draw more people and more consistently than a movie theater, and tickets could cost more without being “upscale.” There needs to be more alternatives to Lincoln Center, especially for recitals. As long as it is inexpensive to rent.
It is interesting how people feel they have the right to tell property owners what they may or may not do with their property.
Private property needs some serious government regulation.
Yes of course, because when the Government gets involved, well that just makes everything better, cheaper, and more efficient. . .SMH.
People love to talk about the excesses of governmental regulation without the slightest clue that America has taken deregulation to even worse extremes. “SMH,” indeed.
Can’t they get Loews or AMC just to make a quick multiplex theater there and show current movies? There is nothing on the entire UWS or Morningside.
That’s…not true? There’s an AMC at Lincoln Square and an AMC at 84th Street.
Does the Upper West Side really need another Duane Reade like the ones that just closed at 63rd and 89th and Bway or another Starbucks like the one that just closed at 63rd and Bway or more luxury housing of which there is plentiful construction that I know of going on at 92nd and Bway and 125th snd Bway. With scaffolding everywhere ? How many movie theaters are there above Lincoln Center? The former Lincoln Plaza is operating part time out of
The church at 86th and West End and there’s an AMC multiplex at 125th and Adam Clayton Powell. That’s it.
PLEASE get the New Plaza people in here!
Lincoln Center should fund it as a satellite performing arts center for under-served children.
Provide music instruction, space for performances.