Residents voice support for Playhouse renovation plans
NEW CANAAN — While just a few members of the public spoke up at a recent Town Council meeting, 44 others sent messages of support for the renovation of the town's Playhouse Theater this week.
Town Council members heard the public input Thursday for renovations at the Playhouse, which would include a bar and a membership-only lounge at 89 Elm Street.
“I'm very excited,” said Joe Miller after explaining he was skeptical of the plans at first. Now, he looks “forward to having the Playhouse operating again as a central part of the town's nucleus, that will be fun for both adults and kids as well and the multiplier effect on local businesses and restaurants.”
Cinema Lab Theaters, the building's potential operator, has proposed plans for the 8,560-squarefoot building that include a bar that serves alcohol, a 1,500 square-foot party room upstairs and reclining seats with snack tables for movie viewing.
“It s not going to be a carbon copy of something somewhere else,” First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said.
Some residents wrote in to express concerns over the theatre serving alcohol, Town Council member Rita Bettino said.
After Bow Tie closed in the same location in 2021, Moynihan said that other theater operators have stressed the importance of a bar as theaters need the additional revenue. Movie production companies on average take 65 percent of the revenue from ticket sales, he added. The bar would be open to the public, serving patrons who are just dropping in for a drink even without seeing a film,
Moynihan said.
The theater will not be directly competitive with other businesses in the village, Bettino argued, since “they're going to be offering something a little bit different,” such as local beer, which would “broaden the selection of places that people can go.”
For food offerings, Cinema Lab representatives have said “they want to work collaboratively with the other businesses,” and are “talking with restaurants to be able to bring in food from those restaurants rather than compete with them,” Bettino said.
Cinema Lab would run the entire building, including the 1,500 square foot space on the second floor, which would be used for a members-only lounge for private parties, film premieres and gatherings.
The monthly membership fees are expected to be an important revenue driver,
Moynihan said. He clarified that in the past, when he said the membership fees would be “like Costco,” he meant in “the sense that anybody can join, but it's not going to be $100 annually.”
Moynihan was not sure if there would be one bar on the main floor or two, with one in the party room upstairs.
The town would not be supervising movie content. That responsibility, and mostly all responsibilities, would be left to Cinema Labs. There will be a buffer, though, Moynihan said. The firm's financial model includes raising money
from local investors, “many of whom we will know,” and they will “act as a brake on any kind of crazy content.”
The lease will only specify primarily first-release films and some alternative content.
Commercial Realtor Jack Trifero spoke in favor of offering alternatives to first-run moves, and recommended special programming on Saturday mornings. He would like to see documentaries on topics relevant to New Canaan such as about the Harvard Five architects and artist Pedro Guerrero.
Moynihan expects the theater to be run differently than it was when Bow Tie Cinemas operated the Playhouse, since the firm owned 24 locations and had fixed corporate policies. In contrast, the Cinema Lab is “very entrepreneurial. They are very young and exciting people,” Moynihan said.
In the proposed agreement, the town would pay more than $2.35 million for outside renovations and Cinema Lab is expected to spend $1.5 million on inside renovations.
The town funds would come from three sources, $600,000 from American Rescue Plan Act; $1 million to be bonded and $750,000 from an account accrued from rent. The selectmen and the Board of Finance have approved the funding requests.
Much of the town funds would be used to make the building ADA compliant, such as leveling entrances and adding an elevator to give access to the second floor. Much of that work would need to be done, no matter what the building is used for, according to Moynihan.
A public hearing will be followed by a vote on June 29 on the proposal to lease the town-owned Playhouse, to New Jersey based Cinema Lab Theaters.