Plans To Revive Landmarked UWS Theater Are Toast, Says Manhattan Pres

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The plans to revive a long-shuttered landmarked Upper West Side art deco theater are being shelved.

The Metro Theater, on West 100 Street and Broadway, will not reopen as an Alamo Drafthouse, announce Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine on Friday, just minutes before a historic earthquake shook the city.

"Disappointing update: This plan has fallen through, due to the bankruptcy of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain," Levine posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.

Levine added that the death of the Metro's longtime owner, Albert Bialek, back in November further complicated the efforts to realize the revived theater.

An Alamo Drafthouse spokesperson said that Levine's assessment was inaccurate — and that Bialek's estate was to blame — in the project where Alamo was only a minority investor.

"The reason the Metro Theater project is no longer moving forward is due entirely to Albert Bialik’s estate," said the spokesperson. "An independent theater group was 100% committed to moving forward with this project at the Metro Theater location with liquor license and building permit secured, and contractor hired. The group is actively ramping up to open a new location as a result of this disappointing news."

Bialek had said in October, just weeks before he died, that the theater was close to reopening, according to Liza Cooper, the president of the New Friends of Metro Theater.

Following an exciting announcement in 2022 that the theater would be reopened as an Alamo Drafthouse, several building permits were filed at the address, including one to "convert existing motion picture theatre building to eating and drinking use."

In August 2023, the theater received approval for renovations including an elevator pit, repairs to the façade and other alterations.

Weeks later, the theater received conditional approval from the New York State Liquor Authority.

The theater replaced a seven-story tenement building and first opened in 1933. It is one of the few surviving neighborhood Art Deco theaters in the city, according to the Landmarks Preservation Commission's 1989 designation.

After Bialek's death, and the bankruptcy of Alamo — his partners in his dream revival — Levine says it's "back to the drawing board yet again."

Many proposals for the space, which has been shuttered for nearly two decades, have sputtered out. But Levine says he's not giving up.

"I will continue to fight to bring this gem back," his post read.

This article was updated to include a statement from Alamo Drafthouse.