The Roots. The Steve Miller Band. Ben Folds Five. Blues Traveler. And a guy named Bob Dylan.
The much-anticipated Sept. 4 reopening of Port Chester”™s 1,800-seat Capitol Theatre has village businesses salivating over the prospect of throngs of concert-goers and new visitors to the area.
Their concern? “Parking,” says Anderson Moretti, general manager of Churrascaria Copacabana, a Brazilian steakhouse just blocks away from the theater.
The unveiling of a newly renovated Capitol Theatre ”“ which hasn”™t featured a public rock concert since the Rolling Stones taped an MTV special there in 1997 ”“ could spark “a revival of the whole Port Chester business community,” Moretti said.
“Everybody”™s been talking about it,” he said. But, Moretti added, “the second most talked about thing is the parking situation ”¦ In the restaurant business and the entertainment business, it”™s all about first impressions.”
Port Chester Mayor Dennis Pilla said Capitol Theatre partners Peter Shapiro and Marvin Ravikoff have been working closely with the village and the police department to determine the best strategy for handling the expected crowds.
The village recently completed a short-term parking improvement plan, which was unrelated to the theater”™s reopening and which created an additional 20 parking spaces in the downtown, Pilla said.
Now, village officials are looking into the possibility of building a 450-space parking structure within a couple blocks of the theater and Port Chester”™s Metro-North Railroad station, which Pilla said would cost around $9 million.
In Westchester County, structured parking typically costs between $20,000 and $25,000 per space to build
Pilla said the village has also been in discussions with G&S Port Chester L.L.C., which owns The Waterfront at Port Chester complex, about using a portion of the parking structure there to accommodate valet parking for theater patrons.
He said he is confident that a plan will be finalized in the remaining week and a half before Dylan takes the stage to reopen the theather.
“I think it”™ll be a game-changer for downtown Port Chester,” Pilla said.
The Capitol Theatre first opened in 1926, designed by Thomas W. Lamb, who also designed the United Palace Theater in Manhattan.
With the likes of Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Santana and Jefferson Airplane headlining in the 1970s, the Capitol made a brief comeback with scattered performances in the early 1990s, but has otherwise served as an events venue for the better part of two decades.
Under new management, the theater has been undergoing a “multimillion – dollar” renovation since the beginning of the year.
Peter Shapiro, who owns the Brooklyn Bowl in New York City, last year bought Capitol Enterprises Inc., which was the theater”™s previous management company.
In December, Shapiro agreed to a long-term lease with theater owner Telco Holding Corp., led by chairman and CEO Marvin Ravikoff.
Since, the theater has undergone “an extensive restoration and polish,” Shapiro said.
“A lot of effort, a lot of people and a lot of resources have gone into giving the theater the top of the line, latest sound system, lighting system, projecting system, new carpets ”¦ there won”™t be a piece of the theater that hasn”™t been renovated and hasn”™t been touched,” he said, adding that “the fundamentals, the originals, are all still there.”
