Broadway project to become storefronts

Initial plan was small community theater

A vacant building on Broadway in Midtown is to be transformed into storefronts and office space.

A vacant building at the corner of Broadway and Field Court in Midtown that had been slated to become a small community theater will instead be transformed into storefronts and office space, the developer said.

During a virtual meeting Monday, the city Planning Board unanimously approved a site plan amendment for the building at 602 Broadway pending the project also receiving approval from the Heritage Area Commission. The building is currently set up to house two commercial retail businesses but will be changed to provide space for two storefronts and a small office, developer Morgan Coy said.

“As you may know, the original plan for this building was to have it be a theater,” Coy said. “And I was diligently working at that and actually getting close to being able to actually break ground and make it happen. Maybe for better or for worse, COVID happened and I don’t know when the next time a theater is going to be a viable reality at all.”

Coy said the engineering issues that were holding up that initial project ended up working to his advantage, though he still holds hope that a theater space will be possible in the future. In the meantime, though, the building will be renovated and have some significant improvements made to create the storefronts and office space, he said. Coy said the three spaces would be available to rent and the prices would be “affordable” in an attempt to bring some life back into the building and continue the work that is happening on Broadway.

The building has been vacant for the last seven years, according to Coy’s application.

Coy said he anticipates the renovations would take approximately five to six months to complete and that while he does not have tenants lined up yet, he has promising leads and feels he will be successful in renting the spaces. He also said the project is significantly eas

significantly easier to accomplish than his original plan, which had included expanding the one-story building to three-stories.

City Planner Suzanne

Cahill said Coy’s plans would break up the current look of the long brick facade of the building by installing planters and windows. She said that would dramatically transform the facade of the building facing Field Court.

Any excavation that needs to be done for the

project along the Broadway facade would need to be done before the city finishes its own streetscape project there, Cahill added. She said the city’s project includes things like new sidewalks, so Coy’s work should be done upfront so nothing has to be dug back up.