Village of Mamaroneck officials have so far been unsuccessful in their efforts to tag a Hollywood ending onto the recent closing of an 89-year-old cinema on Mamaroneck Avenue.
Bow Tie Cinemas L.L.C. closed Mamaroneck Playhouse last month and informed the village it plans to knock down the former theater and replace it with a condominium building with more than 30 units. Mamaroneck Mayor Norman Rosenblum said he has been trying to set up a meeting between the company, the village and Westchester County”™s Industrial Development Agency to discuss alternatives.
“Time will tell if they have any interest,” Rosenblum said. He has emailed company representatives as recently as Tuesday but Bow Tie has not yet responded to the village”™s requests, he said.
Under existing village building codes, Bow Tie would be within its rights to construct a condominium building at the site. Rosenblum said alternatives might include constructing some condominium units on upper floors but retaining a theater or cultural center on the ground level. The county IDA would be invited to the meeting to discuss the possibility of public funds being contributed to any development, the mayor said.
On a recent episode of “The Local Live,” a news program on local access station LMC-TV, the mayor discussed the playhouse”™s closure as part of a panel that also included Steve Josephson, the vice president of the Mamaroneck Chamber of Commerce. Josephson said he hoped Bow Tie would agree to a plan that would have the private and financial benefit of the condos, with a community component on the ground level.
Peter Fellows, of the Mamaroneck Historical Society, lamented the loss of the building as the community losing part of its history.
“It”™s like waking up one morning and not having any memory past last week who you are,” Fellows said during the broadcast. “It”™s crazy, and the village is a like a wandering historic amnesiac that is losing parts of itself every single day in all sorts of different ways and we don”™t seem to be able to do anything to stop it.”
Bow Tie is expecting to apply for a demolition permit in June, according to the mayor.
