Flushing considers latest RKO Keith's development plan after 34 years of false starts
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The latest proposal for the RKO Keith’s Theater site includes 173 condos and 162 hotel rooms. Photo by Paul Sableman/Flickr
By David Brand
Community board members in Flushing are once again faced with a new development proposal at the site of the historic RKO Keith’s theater, the latest plan in a halting, decades-long attempt to repurpose the site of the grand movie palace.
Property owner Xinyuan Real Estate has submitted an application to the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals to build 173 condominiums and 162 hotel rooms in a 16-story tower that would rise above the theater facade at 135-35 Northern Blvd.
The China-based developer purchased the site in 2016, when the property was approved for a 269-condo mixed-use building with no hotel rooms. The new proposal also includes more retail square footage and double the space set aside for an undisclosed “community facility,” according to materials presented to the Queens Community Board 7 Land Use Committee Wednesday. Xinyuan has said they could complete the project by January 2023.
After the CB7 Land Use Committee reviewed details of the proposal, members say they have concerns about adding another hotel to a busy section of Flushing.
“We’re not thrilled,” said CB7 Land Use Committee Chair Chuck Apelian. “We don’t like the hotel concept because we had always deemed this building as more of a residential building with minimal other activity.”
The historic RKO Keith’s foyer in 2014. Photo by Razum Media via Landmarks Preservation Commission
Apelian said there is already a glut of new hotel development in the area, including two hotels under construction near the RKO Keith’s site on 35th Avenue and another on Linden Place.
“That’s four hotels in three blocks, not to mention all the other hotels in Downtown Flushing,” he said.
He also said committee members balked at the potential traffic associated with a hotel at the already busy intersection of Main Street and Northern Boulevard.
The firm Gerner Kronick and Valcarcel Architects designed the new project, which would preserve the lobby and foyer, which received landmark status from the city. Other historic elements of the building were moved off-site for safekeeping and restoration.
A rendering of the restored foyer included in the Xinyuan presentation to CB7’s Land Use Committee. Image via GKV Architects
Despite the board’s reticence about the project, Apelian said he respects Xinyuan and the architects’ commitment to preserving features of the once-opulent building.
The theatre, built in 1928, hosted some of the biggest names in show business, including the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope and Judy Garland, before closing in 1986. For the past three decades, RKO Keith’s has remained dormant as a series of proposed projects stalled and failed.
“Everyone who buys the site with an approved plan buys it and says we’re going to have a new plan,” Apelian said.
Community Board 7 member John Choe, executive director of the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce, said the site has gotten a reputation for bad luck after nearly 35 years of false starts.
“It has the aura of the pharaoh’s tomb — that it’s cursed,” he said.
Past failed proposals have only benefited property owners who sell to new developers, he said.
“The previous owner makes a windfall from flipping the property. The price of the site goes up and the development becomes much more expensive,” he said.
Proposal details included in the presentation to cb7.
Choe said he opposes the current proposal because it does not include affordable housing — units that Flushing residents desperately need.
“We have a huge lack of housing, especially affordable housing, and as rents continue to escalate, our local residents and business owners are being displaced,” Choe said. “I’m very concerned that the RKO Keith is moving toward market-rate development and adds more hotels to the community, which is not the biggest priority at the moment.”
He said he also hopes the final project will showcase the arts, the original function of the RKO Keith’s theater.
“This used to be a cultural center for the community, so it would be ideal if there was an element of culture and arts that was incorporated into the development,” he said.
A spokesperson for project lobbyist Constantinople & Vallone Consulting said the project fits the character and needs of the neighborhood, while preserving the history of the movie palace.
“This multimillion-dollar endeavor includes painstaking removal and restoration of the interior landmark features, and storing them in a warehouse offsite to be brought back when the new building is ready,” said the spokesperson, Lauren George. “When construction is complete, the Flushing community will be able to experience the interior landmark areas of the site to a degree that has not been experienced since the theater closed in 1986.”
Rendering of the proposed condo-hotel complex at the site of the rko keith’s theater in flushing.
George said Xinyuan added the hotel rooms to the new proposal in order to secure the financing required to replace the theater while restoring the landmark space. The hotel will attract customers traveling into the expanded LaGuardia Airport, she said.
“We are excited that the hotel use affords us this opportunity, and optimistic that the economic downturn brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic will pass by the time the hotel opens several years from now,” she said.
“Our hope is that this project, including the hotel, will be part of Downtown Flushing’s economic recovery once this pandemic is behind us.”
