RKO Keith's Theatre
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
51 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 1,324 comments
I wonder if I’ll ever live to see the day when the future of the RKO Keiths, the Playhouse in Great Neck and the Times Square in Manhattan will all be resolved (and, of course, the Long Island Rail Road going into Grand Central Station and the completion of the Second Avenue Subway).
How amazingly appropriate for that to appear on Groundhog Day! How many times can one say “I’ll believe it when I see it” and “Maybe this plan will come to fruition”?
Of course, I don’t actually see any difference between this plan and previous plans. They’re still going to demolish the theater and keep only the lobby. The only real change is in the composition of the building, adding a hotel and restaurant to the condos. Maybe they could add a little enclosed habitat for groundhogs?
“ANOTHER CHANCE AT LIFE FOR RKO KEITH’S…New Proposal to preserve landmarks, add hotel, restaurant and more” are the headlines for a news report in the latest weekly issue of Queens Chronicle. Full article here
Ah, what’s the use. It’s been so long now, nobody but a few of us old geezers even remember there was a theater there. I don’t even know why they’re bothering to return the “restored” lobby elements to the site, since they’ve apparently been moved elsewhere for restoration. Put them in the Queens Museum. At least they’ll be appreciated by more people there.
The whole building is going to be demolished. The land marked portions were removed. The plan is to restore them off site and reinstall them when construction is almost complete.
Any bets that portions of the theater may be “accidentally” destroyed by debris from the adjacent buildings being demolished?
Time marches on for Keith’s Flushing in this recent news report, which claims that demolition of two-story adjacent buildings will be completed by next February. Click here
Yes, it’s still happening. It’s June 23-29, but the Keith’s isn’t on the list.
It’s called TheatreCon now.
Theatre Historical Society of America was supposed to be having its annual conclave in New York City next month. Is that still happening?
Bobby, according to the MarQuee online site they will be “relaunching” in June so, you know how things never occur when scheduled, you may have a long wait.
I understand THS is going to do a tour of the Times Square Theater later in June. Is this true? Should be great to see if anything is left. I am still waiting for a new Marquee magazine since December.
The resolution of this issue and that of the Times Square Theater in Manhattan have been dragging on for an eternity. An awful lot of money has been expended by parties and there is nothing to show for it.
Round & Round we go…. We will see if this one comes true!
It appears a new development will rise on this site after all these years. The article does state the at current developer WILL preserve the landmarked portions of the interior. We shall see.
https://commercialobserver.com/2019/05/mrc-lends-30m-for-the-redevelopment-of-rko-keith-theater-in-flushing/?pi_list_email=luis.vazquez%40compass.com&utm_campaign=daily-roundup&utm_content=2019-17-05-16908509&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=CO%20Daily%20Newsletter
Here is the NY Times article from 4/14/19.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/nyregion/rkokeiths-flushing.html?fbclid=IwAR1sWhBhKs1z1LK70xyX9mMbz4bx3qfwtUqn55xEv1UO-69CDba0z29_Fww
RIP keith’s …
A friend forwarded that article to me. It’s a little hard to believe, considering the number of times this has been said before…but the reporter writes it like an obituary for the theater, and says “this” developer is “really” committed to the project — unlike all the other developers who were just in it to flip the property. Plus the reporter says the theater has been vandalized over the years, failing to mention that the most serious damage was done intentionally by the owners! So I don’t know how much stock to put in the story. Fool me once, shame on me…fool me 50 times, shame on somebody or other.
According to an article in The NY Times today, a new deal to develop the site has been reached and the developer plans on razing the structure in favor of a 16 story glass residential tower. The piece mentions that the lobby and foyer are landmarked, so permission from the LPC had to be obtained. It makes no mention, however, of preserving the landmarked areas – leading me to wonder if the LPC is declassifying the building all together just to be done with the entire saga already. I’d link out to the article, but NYT is a subscription site and access usually doesn’t last. You can easily google it like I did.
If Regal wants to give their patrons ground shaking, wind and rain during the showing of movies, they should really build it inside the Keith. All these elements are already there aren’t they? Regal wanted to build a cinema & a large Imax type screen in the Uptown Theatre in Chicago 2 years ago…But that failed to happened and that was a good thing for the Uptown which now has a new lease on life..
All well and good but where are people supposed to park?
Regal Cinemas has signed a 20-year lease deal for a seven-screen theatre within Tangram, a new mixed-use development at 135-15 39th Avenue in downtown Flushing, according to a report in the weekly Queens Courier. More details here
I agree.
It was de designated at the behest of than Borough President Donald Manes. He voted against upholding designation of the Loews Triboro . He was very anti preservationist. He was a subject of a corruption probe and later committed suicide
“The entire interior of the movie palace used to be a city landmark. However, parts of it were later de-designated by the city’s Board of Estimates, a body that no longer exists, leaving only parts of it — including the grand foyer and ticket lobby — with the status.” Is this accurate? I don’t recall the entire interior ever being designated, and then most of it de-designated. In fact, I don’t remember that ever being mentioned here before. (BTW, it’s “Board of Estimate”)
Now if this company has any vision they would put their project into the RKO and retain and use the lobby in a grand fashion. Maybe put condos & apartments on top for extra income in case the movie house flops.