Norwalk’s Garden Cinemas under contract to be sold

The Garden Cinemas on Isaacs St. on Thursday August 30, 2018 in Norwalk Conn. The Garden Cinemas on Isaacs St. on Thursday August 30, 2018 in Norwalk Conn. Photo: Alex Von Kleydorff / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Alex Von Kleydorff / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Norwalk’s Garden Cinemas under contract to be sold 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

NORWALK — After a half-century of motion pictures, popcorn and sticky floors, Garden Cinemas is under contract to be sold.

The theater, which features independent films, will be sold to real estate developer JHM Group of Stamford, owner Richard Freeman of Garden Homes Management confirmed Wednesday.

“It’s really gratifying to run a business that people really like but it’s not sustainable,” Freeman said.

A possible sale of the theater has been rumored for since last summer. Freeman said the cinema has lost about 50 percent of its business the last four years, since construction started on Phase 1 of the Wall Street Place Development, derisively nicknamed by some the “Tyvek Temple.”

The Phase 1 property is located on the former Isaac Street Parking Lot, across from the cinema.

“That parking was always there for the cinema and other businesses,” Freeman said.

Freeman said he told city officials back in the mid-2000s when the plan for the site was being put together, that the loss of parking could drive the theater out of business.

“What I was afraid of was going to happen, actually happened,” he said.

The future of the Garden Cinemas property has been in question for the past few months. In August 2018, Freeman said that people had expressed interest in the property, which sat across from the Phase 1 construction site.

The interest came particularly from a need to find parking for the Phase 1 project, which originally called for 101 housing units and an automated parking garage. POKO Developers of Port Chester, N.Y., which were the original developers for Phase 1, broke ground in June 2015 on the site, which is when Freeman said the Garden Cinemas started losing business.

“It wasn’t until 2015 that they actually started construction, so once we lost the parking though, the impact on our business was immediate,” he said.

The Phase 1 project then began to stall soon after that and Citibank affiliate Municipal Holdings LLC, took over as the owners of the property. Since then, the bank has been in closed-door talks with developer John McClutchy, of the JHM Group, who is interested in taking over the project.

In May 2018, local developer Jason Milligan said that he was going to purchase properties on Wall and Issacs streets that were part of future phases of the Wall Street Place Development. In June, the city and Redevelopment Agency sued Milligan and POKO, alleging that they violated the land-disposition agreement governing Wall Street Place. The plaintiffs maintain that the transfer required Redevelopment Agency approval under the terms of the agreement.

That case has been going on in the Stamford Court House and it was during hearings earlier this month that it was revealed Citibank affiliate Municipal Holdings LLC., had submitted a written proposal to the city with a new plan for the site.

Norwalk Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Timothy Sheehan said after cross-examination in the case in March that the agency would be discussing the details of the written proposal this month and if there was support for it, the plan would begin to advance.

“If the plan is to move forward in terms of advancing to construction, it would have to go back to zoning and go through site plan approval, and then it would have to ultimately apply for its permitting through the building department,” Sheehan said at that time.

Residents sent emails and expressed their concerns over the future of the site at the Common Council meeting on March 12, when the Council voted to approve the Wall Street-West Avenue redevelopment plan, which covered this area.

Council members said they received emails from constituents stating that if they voted for the plan, they would be voting against the theater. Council members stated that they were two separate issues.

“It does not mean we are voting for or against the Garden Cinemas,” Councilwoman Eloisa Melendez said before the Council vote. “Everyone is a huge fan of it. That is not what this vote is doing.”

The cinema will stay open at least through the close of the sale, which is not known at this point, Freeman said.

kelly.kultys@hearstmediact.com