A seemingly finalized plan to rehabilitate a long-shuttered Upper West Side theater has once again fallen through.
After sitting vacant since 2005, it appeared fate had finally favored Manhattan’s abandoned Metro Theater when, in 2022, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema signed a lease on the historic movie house.
That has now officially joined the pile of other unsuccessful endeavors to breathe new life into the 84-year-old Art Deco property, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine announced this month.
“Disappointing update: This plan has fallen through, due to the bankruptcy of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain. Further complicated by the recent death of the long-time owner of the Metro,” Levine wrote on X this past Friday. “It’s back to the drawing board yet again. I will continue to fight to bring this gem back.”
The dine-in movie chain filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy just a few months after inking an agreement to turn Metro into a boutique movie house; Albert Bialek, who purchased the landmarked 2626 Broadway theater in the 1980s, passed away late last year.
“He was known to be a very tough negotiator,” Levine told Crain’s.
Ryan Fons, a spokesperson for Alamo Drafthouse, denied any fault in the Metro’s most recent rehabilitation, according to Crain’s — wholly blaming Bialik and claiming an indie theater project for which Alamo was a “minority investor,” and not Alamo itself, was slated to open in the space.
“The reason the Metro Theater project is no longer moving forward is due entirely to Albert Bialik’s estate,” said Fons. “The [independent theater] group is actively ramping up to open a new location as a result of this disappointing news.”
Although reported as a done deal and a sure thing, it would appear that Alamo — as with Planet Fitness and Urban Outfitters before it — never fully finalized its takeover of the Metro.