Beloved Cinema To Reopen After 20 Years On The UWS

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — It's an encore for the ages.

More than 20 years after the Metro Theater at 99th Street and Broadway was shuttered, a nonprofit is giving the community landmark a new lease on life.

The Upper West Side Cinema Center, a new nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing the space and reopening the theater, has just completed the $6.9 million purchase of the building, Ira Deutchman, its president and co-founder, said.

Now, the nonprofit will transform the dilapidated space into a five-screen theater featuring classics and independent films, a spokesperson for the nonprofit said.

The plan also includes an education center and a cafe and lounge which will open to the street.

The funds to purchase the building were a combination of grants from elected officials, foundations and nearly 400 local donors.

Notable filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, Ethan Hawke, Frances McDormand, Griffin Dunne, and others signed on to be advisors to the organization, the nonprofit said.

Governor Kathy Hochul's administration contributed $3.5 million, as requested by Upper West Side Assemblymember Micah Lasher, and $500,000 from the State Senate, which Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal advocated for.

“I’m thrilled that West Siders have come together to save the iconic Metro Theater. Thanks to the Upper West Side Cinema Center, and hundreds of individual donors, this art deco masterpiece, which has been abandoned for twenty years, is now on its way to being fully restored and reopened," Hoylman-Sigal said.

Hochul allocated her discretionary funding just as the Cinema Center was facing a January deadline to close the deal on the sale, ultimately saving the project.

“The Metro was the movie theater of my youth, but for twenty years it has epitomized the loss of treasured places and institutions in our neighborhood. After a decade of false starts, we are now on a path to create an extraordinary cultural destination in the heart of the Upper West Side, turning blight into brightness,” Lasher said.

The Upper West Side Cinema Center will now embark on the second phase of its campaign to raise the funds necessary to build out the facility and restore the landmarked façade.

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