Heights Cinema to Have Space in New Building, But Must Seek Temporary Home

By on February 21, 2012 12:17 pm in Arts and Entertainment, Brooklyn Heights, Landmark Preservation, movies, News

The Heights Cinema will have a home in the new building to be constructed on its site:

The Brooklyn Paper: Landlord Tom Caruana says he will save space for the beloved movie house on Henry Street when he tears down the old-timey theater and constructs a new apartment building at the site — succumbing to community pressure to keep the neighborhood icon around.

“The theater has been saved!” said proprietor Kenn Lowy, a local musician who bought the tumbledown picture palace last summer. “Now we can move forward.”

According to the Brooklyn Paper story, the new building will have space for a single screen theater in the basement, and “a lobby for art and singer-songwriters on the first floor.” The design for the five story building has not yet been finalized, so construction is not likely to start until later this year. The Cinema therefore has several months left in its present digs. Lowy will have to find temporary quarters for the Cinema to last until construction, which is expected to take about two years, is completed.

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  • EHinBH

    Excellent, excellent News. We get rid of a crumbling building AND get to keep a great independant theatre!

  • AEB

    Well, a landlord with a sense of community! Of course, part of the cinama’s charm is its building, which gives it a 50’s small-town look, but even so…

  • Luke C

    Great compromise (although I’m not crazy about gaining a new light-blocking neighbor) to protect the valuable character of our neighborhood. We’re all going to have sustain out patronage of the theater to ensure that it is a successful business and that it does get to come back.

  • AnnOfOrange

    For a model for community support of a beloved neighborhood movie theater, check out http://www.brynmawrfilm.org.

  • hoppy

    Hopefully, the new theater will have a better sound system than the existing one. I went to see “The Artist” this past weekend and couldn’t hear a damn thing the actors were saying.

  • Curmudgeon

    Why so long? It took two years to build the Empire State Building!

  • David on Middagh

    I’ll bet today’s developers wish the Empire State Building had never been built. They can never live up to that masterpiece of logistics.

  • Leucas

    Great. Five years from now there possibly might be a theater there again – but likely it will just never reappear for various economic reasons. Time will pass this by. Hate to say it.

  • Monty

    I hope he finds a temporary space. If not, I have an extra bedroom he could use and we can make popcorn in the microwave.

  • Jorale-man

    I’m not quite so pessimistic but I do worry about whether this will come to fruition when all is said and done. And maybe I’m too nostalgic but I do like the charm of the old place, warts and all.

    That being said, @Luke C is right – it’s important the neighborhood continue to support the theater through this transition.

  • stuart

    The important thing is to get a nice new building built there and to get rid of that decrepit, moldy eyesore.

  • David on Middagh

    Why do I suspect there’s no correlation between those who are salivating over the building’s demolition and those who have ever or will ever watch a movie at Heights Cinema?

  • travy

    “Now we can move forward.”

    sorry, they will never put a theater in the new space.

  • EHinBH

    I for one have gone there once every two months or so. Good popcorn when it is fresh. Everything else kind of sucks. No less then four times the ‘crowd’ was locked out waiting for them to finally unlock the doors. It’s dirty, cold… The building on the outside is stripped from what it originally looked like and is peeling and is nothing more than a brick rectangle, there is nowhere to sit in the lobby. Why on earth would anyone wax nostolgic about this place?

  • David on Middagh

    I’m with the pessimists. This feels like we are losing our neighborhood theater. Construction projects get delayed; businesses settle elsewhere and don’t want to move again. Once the Heights Cinema moves out, all bets are off.

  • Wrennie

    The building is pretty terrible, so if the theater does indeed make its way back into the new building once it’s built, I assume it’d be a much more comfortable place to sit for two hours.

    PS: to the person eating one kernel of popcorn per minute throughout the entirety of The Artist this weekend–are you really that oblivious to the fact that not one other person was making ANY noise whatsoever aside from you and your triplicate chewing? You are gross; please get manners before returning to public spaces. Thanks, and good job ruining a silent film.

  • MonroeOrange

    Wow, one kernel per minute! Outrageous, this person should be banned from all public spaces!

    And while I always loved the theater and hope it returns, I agree all bets are off once they are out.

  • BH’er

    I agree with the pessimists… this is lip service. two years from now is a long time

    can we see the business plan? why would a developer investing in such a venture forfeit so much space to a theatre that doesn’t have a profitable enterprise?

    unless it’s a basement closet, I don’t see there being a theatre in our future that will sell many tickets