Guess what’s coming to Broadway — make-believe Broadway!
At long last, a lease signing appears close for the former Times Square Theater — the colonnaded venue behind tacky billboards at 217 W. 42nd St. It has stood vacant for nearly 20 years, an eyesore amidst the thriving theaters, clubs and restaurants on the “Deuce” between Seventh and Eighth avenues.
Sources said that if all goes according to plan, the multi-level, 30,000 square-foot space will be home to an entertainment spectacular called Broadway 4D — “a kind of Las Vegas version of Broadway past and present,” as an insider described it, drawing on live talent as well as multi-media effects.
Financial backing, sources said, is from Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Kr Capital Partners. Although the signing of a long-term lease was described as “imminent” by one source, it might be premature to line up to buy tickets. “There are contingencies,” a real estate source told us. “This thing is very, very complicated.”
All parties involved either declined to comment or failed to return calls. They would rather wait to present the gift-wrapped deal with names of presumably A-list show business types on the creative team, so it doesn’t sound ridiculous — i.e., an out-of-town version of actual Broadway shows in a district full of real ones.
In truth, Cora Cahan, president of nonprofit landlord New 42nd Street, and wife of Tony-winning producer Bernard Gersten, is a distinguished performing arts administrator who’s unlikely to settle for schlock. She previously oversaw the transformation of the block’s other historic theaters.
New 42nd Street has held a master lease on most of the block’s theaters since 1992. By that time, the once-vital Deuce had de-
generated into the city’s ugliest, most noxious concentration of crime and porn.
Since then, commercial development in tandem with the theater conversions has brought the block the Disney-owned New Amsterdam, Madam Tussaud’s, B.B. King’s Blues Club and the Times Square Hilton.
The only remaining blemish was the empty Times Square with 100 feet of precious sidewalk frontage. Finding a user has long frustrated New 42nd Street. Designer Marc Ecko signed a lease in 2004, but walked away from the deal in 2009.
Presumably that won’t happen a second time. But although the theater is not a designated city landmark, alterations are subject to review by state historic-property officials.
And the Times Square has been “calendared” by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission — meaning the panel would have 40 days to designate the theater after plans are filed with the Buildings Department.
The Times Square opened in 1920 and was home to original productions of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “The Front Page.” It later became a theater showing kung-fu films in the 1980s.
Since then, nearly every kind of retail and entertainment use has been proposed for the site — including one by Warner LeRoy to create a Venetian restaurant fantasy complete with canals.
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Embattled Kent Swig faces a potential challenge to his control of 80 Broad St., the prewar office building he bought for $70 million 2004.
Special servicer J.E. Robert Company is selling the $75 million senior mortgage loan on the tower, via a Cushman & Wakefield team including Steven Kohn, Helen Hwang, Nat Rockett, Karen Wiedenmann and Alex Hernandez.
The loan was shipped to the servicer last March, when Fitch reported it was in “imminent default.”
Swig “is going to have to work magic to keep this one,” said Real Capital Analytics research director Dan Fasulo. A mortgage buyer “will likely be looking to take it over,” said an industry insider.
Last year, Swig defaulted on a $12 million mezzanine loan at 80 Broad but managed to retain ownership. Although Swig’s payments on the senior mortgage are current, the tower is in “covenant default,” which can occur for several reasons.
Manus Clancy, senior managing director of commercial market-monitor Trepp, noted that 80 Broad St. was appraised for $113.5 million in 2006, but for only $67 million in April 2010 — below the loan balance.
Swig took out the $75 million mortgage in 2006. “As part of the refinancing, he probably planned to get pretty nice rents which aren’t really there for this building,” Fasulo said. The 410,000 square-foot address is about 85 percent occupied. Asking rents are $32 a square foot.
A spokesman for Swig said, “The purchase and sale of debt in today’s market is commonplace and the motivation of one party to sell its position is often a business decision not necessarily related to the performance of a specific property.”
Swig’s $3 billion real-es tate empire has been under strain. He lost control of a development site at 45 Broad St. as well as of the huge Sheffield apartment tower on West 57th Street.