Updated, 4:25 p.m.: Clarification about Mary Kyriakides; Kydes comment: “We lost a ton of money.”
NORWALK, Conn. – The Globe Theater – a long neglected piece of the Norwalk redevelopment puzzle – has been sold to a company led by a man who has been seeking to restore it.
Mary Kyriakides sold 71 Wall St. to the Wall Street Theater Company for $1.5 million Tuesday, Jan. 7, according to records in the town clerk’s office. Kyriakides is listed in tax records as taking over the property from Wall 71 LLC in 2007 and buying the property for $555,000 in 2008.
Andrew Kydes, Kyriakides’s husband, said Tuesday that his wife bought half the property in 2006. She went on to buy the other half in 2008, he said. Her total cost was more than $1 million, he said. There were carrying costs associated with owning the property. There were also legal expenses, he said.
Frank Farricker, the managing member of the Wall Street Theater Company, is quoted in Westfaironline as saying that he plans to a renovate it into a 780-seat theater with 24 fixed-position cameras and digital technology capable of streaming video over the web, while maintaining the historic integrity of the circa-1915 Norwalk icon. Farricker did not return a Monday evening phone call.
Last summer, the state Bond Commission approved $1.5 million to go toward renovating the theater. Kydes said Friday that grant has been transferred to the Wall Street Theater Company as part of the sale.
The project was discussed at an August 2011 Planning Committee meeting.
“The redevelopment of the Globe Theater (aka ‘The Norwalk Theater,’ ‘The Roxy,’ etc.) has long been considered a key element in Wall Street area’s revitalization,” the minutes read.
The Wall Street Theater’s website says, “The Wall Street Theater adopts its moniker from its location and its mission from its history, combining live shows, interactive entertainment, cinema, digital production, art space and a community arena in which to play. The Wall Street Theater is poised to be the where-to-go destination in downtown Norwalk, if not all of Fairfield County, Connecticut, with an anticipated completion date of Fall 2014.”
Farricker had been hoping to purchase the theater last summer, according to The Hour. The project is expected to cost $7.5 million. Farricker says in an It’s Relevant video that much of that will be done with tax credits.
Last summer, the theater company applied for a $1.5 million HUD (Housing and Urban Development) Section 108 guaranteed loan. There is no word of what became of that.
Kydes said the property has been empty since 2006. It was renovated after its’ use as a nightclub. He spent $70,000 on architects as part of a plan to convert it to apartments, he said. There were mortgage fees.
“We lost a ton of money on that,” he said.
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