City Seeks Proposals for Future of Senator Theatre

Baltimore officials want venue to stay active as arts center or movie theater

City officials are moving ahead with plans to sell or lease the historic Senator Theatre to an operator who would keep it running as a movie theater or convert the 70-year-old landmark to a performing arts venue.

The city purchased the financially troubled theater's mortgage in May after the owner, Thomas Kiefaber, was unable to make payments on a $1.2 million loan that the city had partially guaranteed. The city then took ownership of the theater in July after a controversial foreclosure auction. Kiefaber, who has continued to show films under an informal agreement with the city, had until last Friday to file a formal challenge to the foreclosure sale and did not do so, clearing the way for the city to take title to the property on York Road in Northeast Baltimore.

The 1939 theater, the last of the single-screen movie houses that once dotted the city, is known for its art deco architecture and viewed as a key anchor for the Belvedere Square market.

The July auction drew four registered bidders but only one offer, from an anonymous bidder, other than the city's $810,000 winning bid. At the time, at least two prominent local businessmen, developer David Cordish and the Charles Theatre's operator, James "Buzz" Cusack, had said they might be interested in running the theater.

On Monday, Cordish said in an email that his company would not submit a bid, but still would consider stepping in to keep the theater going.

"What we've said is that if the city is stuck, call us; we will form a nonprofit," Cordish said in the email. "We will run as a first-class movie theater. It is very important to the city and neighborhoods that the Senator continues as a first-class movie theater.

"We would charge nothing, take nothing out, and if there are profits, the nonprofit would put all the money back into the Senator for capital improvements which are sorely needed," he said.