Hidden deep behind a shuttered electronics shop on Canal Street is what an Asian-American arts group hopes will become the Lincoln Center of Chinatown — a massive 2,300-seat theater that’s been sealed off for three decades.
The former Loews Canal theater at the corner of Ludlow Street is a sleeping giant of a performance space that has been the target of a six-year-long effort to create a new cultural center in a neighborhood that has struggled to recover from 9/11.
But for the first time the project may have the backing of the building’s owners, local banker Thomas Sung and his family, who late last month agreed to launch feasibility studies for the arts project.
“The Sung family remains interested in developing the entire building, while rehabilitating the theater space and creating a cultural and performing arts center,” read a joint statement from the owners and the arts group sponsoring the project.
Amy Chin, president of the not-for-profit group leading the drive to create a new performance center, said the Loews Canal has the potential to be both a cultural mecca and an economic engine for the neighborhood.
“We have a vision of this as a town square, with a store, a visitors’ bureau, theaters, a café and rehearsal spaces,” said Chin, whose group is called the Committee to Revitalize and Enrich the Arts and Tomorrow’s Economy — or CREATE.
Chin said a performing arts center was one of the few projects that drew almost unanimous support after the World Trade Center attacks.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. gave Chin’s group a $150,000 grant to study the project, with another $140,000 on tap for more planning.
But the theater itself remained a mystery to Chin and other artists hunting for prospective space. The marquee on Canal Street was long gone and an electronics shop had filled the original entrance. The theater — stripped of seats — is a warehouse.
“We knew there was a theater there somewhere, but we had no idea of how to get in,” Chin said.
A longtime resident pointed them to the entrance at 31 Canal.
Once inside, Chin said she was stunned to see so much of the 1926 theater’s ornate terra cotta design still intact.
“The theater is in surprisingly good shape,” said Guido Hartray, an architect with the firm Rogers Marvel.