Correction, 7:19 p.m.: Court resumes next week. Updated, 9:26 a.m.: Information added; 8:27 a.m.: Copy edits
NORWALK, Conn. – Garden Cinemas is being sold, owner Richard Freedman confirmed Saturday to NancyOnNorwalk.
Attendance at the arthouse theater is half what it used to be, Freedman said, and the building is under contract to be sold to a developer. Stamford-based JHM Group, owned by John McClutchy, has the theater under contract and is also expected to take over construction of the adjacent stalled redevelopment project known to many as “POKO.”
Freedman blamed the theater’s demise on a lack of parking since 2015, when POKO — officially known as Wall Street Place — began construction atop what was the Isaac Street municipal lot, across the street from the theater. He said Saturday that he assumes JHM will demolish the theater.
“The cinema is being sold regardless. Attendance has plummeted since we lost our parking in 2015 when POKO started construction, and the parking isn’t coming back,” he wrote. ‘Right after the redevelopment plan came out in the mid-2000’s, my father and I met with Mayor Knopp. We told him the loss of the Isaac St. lot would destroy the cinema. He was dismissive.”
Knopp declined to comment.
Real estate broker Jason Milligan first disclosed in August that JHM was looking to buy the Garden Cinemas to provide parking for POKO phase I, a mixed-use development planned more than a decade ago to include retail on its first floor and a 20 percent affordable housing component in its 101 apartments.
The Zoning Commission in 2016 allowed POKO Partners to move some of the development’s required parking onto an adjacent parcel owned by the company. Since Milligan now owns that lot, JHM must make up the required parking spaces elsewhere.
NancyOnNorwalk spoke to several Garden Cinemas patrons who said that despite POKO they have never had a problem finding a space in the cinema’s private lot, which contains at least 55 spaces, according to a Google satellite image.
“There’s parking because attendance is so low,” Freedman wrote. “If it were better, parking would be short. Worse, for what he paid, (Milligan) must develop the Leonard St. lot, leaving only the parking on site. The current situation is bad, the long-term prognosis is hopeless.”
There’s also parking available for a fee at 23 Isaac St., the lot owned by Milligan.
The contract doesn’t specify a closing date for the theater, Freedman said.
Freedman acknowledged in a subsequent email that streaming services such as Netflix and the improved quality of inexpensive televisions are also a factor, and have “caused a decline in movie-going and will continue to do so.”
Freedman also owned and operated the arthouse State Cinema in Stamford. In June he announced that theater would close after Labor Day.
“It has always been difficult for small cinemas to compete against multiplexes, and the larger trend of falling attendance has affected the State sharply,” Freedman is quoted in the Stamford Advocate as saying.
Movie attendance was reported at a 25-year low in 2017, but rebounded 5.5 percent in 2018, Variety reports.
Officials: Wall-West plan approval unrelated to Cinema’s demise
Prior to approving the Wall Street-West Avenue Neighborhood Plan at a meeting last week, Council members said that they’d received many emails telling them to vote against it to save Garden Cinemas. Planning Committee Chairman John Kydes (D-District C) said the emails reflected “misinformation.” The Wall Street-West Avenue plan governs how redevelopment may proceed in the area.
Milligan and activist Donna Smirniotopoulos provided NoN with emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request which were received by Council members prior to voting on the Wall-West plan. The Council received eight emails from people who urged a vote against demolishing the Cinemas. Four emails were from people who mentioned the plan and also decried the expected demolition of the Cinemas, and 16 were from citizens who showed an obvious knowledge of the plan.
The plan does not mention the Cinemas, other than identifying them in a map as “vacant.”
“I understand the passion people have but they should be very aware of what is in the plan and what is being voted on, it has nothing to do with the Garden Cinema,” Colin Hosten (D-At Large) said during the meeting.
NancyOnNorwalk asked Milligan to explain the connection between the Neighborhood Plan and the expected demolition of the Cinema. He replied:
“There is not feasible way to fit the requisite parking to make POKO Phase I whole without removing Garden Cinema.
“Passing this new Redevelopment Plan is the gateway {drug} to tearing down the Garden Cinema.
“See if the mayor, Tim Sheehan, The council or John McClutchy will swear on a bible or create legislation that would prevent it!
“They could have very easily added an amendment to the Agency Plan that under no circumstances would tearing down the Garden Cinema become part of the POKO project.”
“I’m not sure what Mr. Milligan means by ‘gateway drug,’” Council President Tom Livingston (D-District E) wrote Monday. “The Wall Street-West Avenue Neighborhood Plan, which is a replacement of previous plans and has been in the works since early 2017, makes no reference to the Cinema. As for Mr. Milligan’s suggested amendment, I’ll simply note that as the owner of adjacent properties Mr. Milligan would be the most obvious beneficiary of such an amendment.”
City officials have blamed Milligan for the need to create more parking, alleging that it was his purchase of parcels from POKO’s original developer that created the shortage.
The City and its Redevelopment Agency sued Milligan, seeking to undo his purchase of the Isaac Street lot and other properties slated to be used by POKO for the stalled redevelopment project. Last week in court, Milligan argued that the Land Disposition Agreement (LDA) for the properties is invalid because the 2004 Wall Street Plan has expired. The LDA is a tri-party agreement governing how the properties would be developed.
Attorney Joseph Williams, representing the Redevelopment Agency, said the plan hasn’t expired and that the LDA is not dependent upon having an active plan. Judge Charles Lee is expected to rule on this next week.
Approvals for POKO Phase I hinge partially on the LDA. “One way or another, the project is going forward. That’s nothing that questions the viability of it,” Williams said in court on March 4.
NancyOnNorwalk contacted the eight people who had emailed the Council and asked what led them to believe that a vote for the Neighborhood Plan was a vote to demolish the Cinema.
Two said they had read NancyOnNorwalk’s story quoting Milligan as linking the issues, one said he got it from a post on Facebook from former Council member Steve Serasis, “who seems to feel eminent domain may be invoked to demolish the … theater.”
Milligan has accused Kydes of threatening people to keep them from attending the Council meeting, calling it “thug politics.”
“The council received several solicited emails from residents who believed that the Wall Street/ West Avenue plan vote included closing the theater,” Kydes wrote Sunday. “I responded to a couple of the more emotional emails to clarify that wasn’t the case. It’s unfortunate that we have a small group of self-proclaimed leaders of the community who spread misinformation for their own gain. If you believe a developer who doesn’t live in Norwalk cares more about our downtown area then the council, it may be time to re-evaluate.”
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