Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender recently called on the Village of Great Neck Estates Board of Trustees to consult with their Great Neck Plaza counterparts on the on the proposed development of the First Playhouse Theater.
Celender said in a letter sent to Great Neck Estates trustees dated May 12 that they had failed to respond to a previous letter she had sent them in which she outlined a series of concerns about the project and how they should be addressed.
“We submitted a detailed letter with our concerns on September 9, 2013 at which meeting date no responses were being provided; the Board only entertained questions,” Celender said. “We not only want these issues consulted with us, but assurances from the Great Neck Estates Board of Trustees that adequate conditions will be attached and included in your approval to ensure such issues are addressed satisfactorily by the applicant.”
The owner of the theater, First Playhouse of Great Neck Corp., has proposed to replace the long-abandoned theater at the intersection of Middle Neck Road and Maple Drive in the Village of Great Neck Estates near the border of Great Neck Plaza with luxury apartments.
Celender and other members of the Great Neck Plaza Board of Trustees have regularly attended meetings of the Great Neck Estates Board of Trustees when the proposal has been discussed.
In her letter, Celender asked that Great Neck Plaza “be compensated for the loss of street parking and meter revenues lost on Middle Neck Road during the redevelopment process.”
Great Neck Plaza in the past was compensated for loss of revenue during similar construction, Celender said.
Celender also asked that no vehicles belonging to construction workers be parked “on surrounding local streets of Great Neck Plaza where there’s a shortage of resident parking.”
Celender also asked that First Playhouse Theater Corp. of Great Neck be required to restore brick sidewalks, street lamp posts” and village trees removed during construction when the project is “nearing completion of the construction work when the scaffolding is dismantled.”
Other requests relate to the safety of the project, including making sure sidewalks are handicap accessible during construction, barriers be complaint with county standards, temporary sidewalk lighting and plans are made for a safety zone during demolition and construction.
Village of Great Neck Estates Mayor David Fox said Celender’s comments would be incorporated after First Playhouse of Great Neck Corp. presented the board with its final demolition and construction proposal.
“Those things can be done, but you can’t state that they’ll be done because there’s no documents,” Fox said. “You can’t include things into things that don’t exist.”
Fox said the application, which has been in front of the board for more than six years, has been slow because the board would not grant a permit to the applicant “until they get everything perfect.”
“We’re trying to make this as safe as possible,” he said. “Until they spell everything out, we’re not going to let them take it down.”
The playhouse, which dates back to 1925, attracted many leading acts throughout the years, including the Marx Brothers, Irving Berlin and Oscar Hammerstein.
A plan to replace the theater was first approved in 2007. That proposal would have kept the original facade of the theater and renovated the inside. Those plans fell through when engineers said it would be much more cost-effective to completely rebuild the property.
The project has been criticized by many of the local residents, including Great Neck Estates historian Ilse Kagan.
“It is considered by outsiders and insiders as a very important building in the village, and the history of course is phenomenal,” Kagan said last April. “The playhouse recalls Great Neck’s glorious days.”
Kagan has said the theater’s history makes it worthy of landmark status and that the building should remain as is.
“Now to say that they’re going to take it down and rebuild it is absurd,” Kagan said. “I don’t think that’s a solution.
The Great Neck Historical Society, in a letter written to the village last year, said they would like to see the existing facade retained.
“It is a reminder of an exciting period in our history when we were both literally and figuratively just ‘30 minutes from Broadway,’” the letter said. “A substitute copy of the building is not the same.”
