Coolidge Corner Theatre Gets Green Light for Expansion

Brookline Town Meeting voted in favor of the three warrant articles for the Coolidge Corner Theatre expansion on Thursday, May 30. 

The proposed expansion would add either a two or three story addition in the rear of the theatre. This would allow for a 120 to 180-seat theater with an expanded lobby, new concession stands, more bathrooms, and additional office space.

Executive Director Denise Kasell told Town Meeting that the major movie distributors require a 140-seat auditorium for their first-run films. The Coolidge’s main theater seats 440 and the upstairs theater can seat 220, but the other two screening rooms have 45 and 13 seats respectively.

The warrant article asks the town to give up an a 2,500-sqaure foot easement at the rear of the theater. The renovation would result in 11 new parking spaces in the Centre Street lot, two of which would be handicapped. The project would take a few years to complete.

Articles 19, 20, and 21 each granted the Theatre easement on land that was granted to the town in 1964, easement to provide access from Harvard Street to the parking lot, access to a 99-year lease of the air rights over the town owned land behind the current theatre, respectively. Article 19 granted the Theatre a portion of an easement granted by the First Parish in Waltham to the Town of Brookline adjacent to 280-292 Harvard Street.

The Board of Selectmen had offered praise to the Coolidge Corner Theatre for serving as a landmark in town, and for their services to the town, like hosting the Brookline Together event following the bombing of the Boston Marathon. Town Meeting voted in overwhelming favor of all three articles.