A grassroots group in Bedford with several marquee names among its volunteers aims to raise $2.5 million by the end of this month to restore and renovate the Bedford Playhouse as a modern cinema complex and save it from conversion to retail space by its landlord.
Alchemy Properties, a New York City-based developer of residential and retail properties that include the Woolworth Tower Residences in Lower Manhattan, in 2013 acquired the brick theater building at 633-647 Old Post Road in the hamlet of Bedford Village. The mixed-use building includes 25 upper-story rental apartments, according to the Alchemy website.
In January, the owner lost its most recent theater tenant, Bow Tie Cinemas, which chose not to renew its lease and closed the doors of the 68-year-old movie house. Bow Tie, based in Ridgefield, Conn., took over the Bedford theater in 2013 when it acquired Cablevision”™s Clearview Cinemas, its previous operator.
- The Bedford Playhouse at 633-647 Old Post Road in the hamlet of Bedford Village.
Kenneth Horn, president of Alchemy Properties, in published reports has said he wants to bring another cinema operator to Bedford Village, but will adapt the theater space for retail tenants if no cinema operator is found early this year. The town of Bedford Planning Board in November reportedly approved Alchemy”™s use of the theater”™s approximately 2,200 square feet of ground-level and mezzanine space as retail space.
The theater”™s looming demise prompted John Farr, an independent film curator and editor and operator of Best Movies by Farr, a movie-content website, to form Friends of Bedford Playhouse last October. Farr, the group”™s chairman, in a video introduction to the nonprofit”™s mission on its website at friendsofbedordplayhouse.org, said the theater”™s conversion to retail space “would be a tragedy.”
Farr has proposed a nonprofit Bedford Playhouse modeled after the successful Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville and the Avon Theater in Stamford, a downtown landmark that Farr did much to restore and revive as a cinema showcase and cultural hub when he co-founded another nonprofit theater group, Avon Theater Film Center Inc., more than a decade ago. The Bedford building”™s existing dual-screen theater would be replaced by a large-screen theater showing first-run films and a smaller, more intimate second-screen theater would be built, both with state-of-the-art digital projectors. The renovated theater, envisioned as a cultural center for the community, also would have space for small gatherings, special events and educational programs relating to film and the arts, along with a high-end lobby cafe.
Farr said the group must raise $2 million for renovations and about $500,000 for equipment upgrades. The $2.5 million must be raised by March 1 to save the theater from conversion to retail uses, he said.
A spokesperson for the nonprofit in a press release said the group has raised more than $500,000 in pledges from residents in the four months since its formation. Friends of Bedford Playhouse received a major boost this month when the Thompson Family Foundation, a New York City-based charity, pledged $200,000 toward the fundraising goal.
The foundation pledged an additional $300,000 contribution if Friends of Bedford Playhouse secures matching funds for that gift by March 1.
“This leadership donation comes at just the right moment,” Farr said in a press release announcing the pledge. “We will do all we can to leverage this exceptional gift to achieve our ultimate goal ”” to transform this historic theater into a vital cultural and community hub.”
The grassroots group has attracted several luminaries of cinema to its cause. Its advisory board includes documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger, comedian Chevy Chase, film director and screenwriter J.C. Chandor, and Swedish film director Lasse Hallstrom and his wife, actress Lena Olin.
