The renovation of the shuttered Lowenstein Theatre, hailed as the cornerstone of the revitalization of East Colfax Avenue, is threatened by a lack of agreement among its development partners as construction deadlines loom.
Developer Charlie Woolley characterized plans for the new cultural and retail center Saturday night as being at a “very, very critical stage.” The project, which hopes to bring together the Denver Film Society, Tattered Cover Book Store and Twist & Shout record store at Elizabeth Street, remains unsettled because of an inability to reconcile the Film Society’s grand plans with its limited existing financing. The overall project estimated at $14 million in March is now at $23 million.
“This is really crunch time for the entire deal, and we are still trying very hard to figure out a way to make it work for the Film Society. But we are running out of time,” said Woolley, whose St. Charles Town Co. real-estate development firm bought the Lowenstein this year from the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
St. Charles is financing the refurbishment of the existing, 66,000-square-foot theater for use by the Tattered Cover. A new 70,000-square-foot building on the existing parking surface would house Twist & Shout as well as the Film Society’s new state-of-the-art, five-screen cineplex. A 200- to 300-space parking lot would be built above that addition. Once construction is complete, St. Charles would then sell the facilities to their new owners.
The Tattered Cover will need that parking operable by summer, by which time the lease in its Cherry Creek location will have run out.
“We have made no final decision,” said Film Society executive director Scott Rowitz, whose 28th annual film festival opens Thursday. “We are at a critical juncture in the negotiations, but we have not pulled out, and we are still trying to find a way to make this work.”
But there’s a Catch-22: Construction no longer can wait for the Film Society to settle on its structural and financial needs, but without the Film Society, the entire deal could collapse. And Woolley can’t begin construction on the new building if he isn’t certain who his tenants are.
“We are keeping our options open,” said Twist & Shout owner Paul Epstein, “but the plans and the timeline have changed so dramatically in the past month, it’s hard for me to say how this is all going to work out. The Film Society brings a cachet and a certain civic weight to the whole thing, and it is just not the same project without it.”
While Twist & Shout plans to keep its existing retail spaces open near Alameda Avenue and Grant Street, and the Film Society has a lease to operate its Starz Encore Center on the Auraria campus through 2011, Tattered Cover is on the clock.
“Construction already has begun on the interior of the Lowenstein for what would be the Tattered Cover,” Woolley said. “We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars already, so it would be very difficult for any of us to walk away from it now.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
