TANKS may be rolling into Baghdad early next year, but one place they no longer roll is on 42nd Street.
That’s where the former Armory of the 77th “Statue of Liberty” Division of the U.S. Army Reserve used to be housed, before the eight upper floors were co-opted for residential use. By next fall, however, the 31,950-square-foot ground and basement floors at 543 W. 42nd St. will have dancing feet, teenage talent shows and community theaters, all owned and operated by the All Stars Project.
Currently based in SoHo at 500 Greenwich St., the new All Stars performing art center will have 150 feet of frontage along the north side of The Deuce. “We were much too big for the SoHo space, and now will have many more resources,” All Star’s Roger Grunwald said.
Last week, after a two-year search for space and incentives, the group closed on the commercial condominium for $7.75 million, from Aaron Goodridge through Joel Nelson and Jeffrey Tuller of Helmsley-Spear.
“He liked the concept,” Nelson said of the owner, who toyed with leasing to an auto dealer but instead stuck it out for more than a year with the All Stars. That’s the amount of time it took to comply with issues raised by the city’s Industrial Development Agency, which will now finance the $11.5 million project through $8.25 million in tax-exempt bonds.
Board member and architect Douglas Balder – creator of the new dinosaur exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History – along with Marie-Paule Peitijean, will design seven learning, rehearsal and performance spaces, two black-box theaters of 99 and 110 seats – one in a space formerly occupied by the Actors Studio – plus offices, common areas, scenery design and costume shops.
The All Stars Project sponsors on-site and school outreach programs involving 20,000 New York kids who participate in dozens of talent shows, rehearsals and workshops.
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Planet Hollywood creator and CEO Robert Earl told us he’s starting to seek several locations for “Earl of Sandwich,” a new-to-the-former-Colonies hot food concept. The brand is actually owned by the royal family, and it already boasts some eateries open in England.
Back in 1762, while the Fourth Earl of Sandwich was head of the British Navy, he invented the sandwich – and the rights to the name still rest with the royals. “Expect a few across Manhattan,” Earl said.
When they tune up the concept for the local market, Earl’s long-time broker, Bradley Mendelson, of Insignia/ESG, will handle the search-for-space assignment.
Meanwhile, forget any sublessor of Bar Code taking on any of the Planet Hollywood space. Celebrity-supported Planet Hollywood has confirmed its reorganization plan, and it expects to emerge from bankruptcy as a privately owned company in early 2003.
It will also keep its core locations, such as the one in the heart of Times Square at the Bertelsmann Building, at 1540 Broadway.
“New York is the pivotal one,” Earl advised us from the company’s home base in Orlando, where its giant globe is a bustling blue landmark at Disney’s Pleasure Island. “Business is good [in New York] and on Saturday, Dec. 14, alone we fed over 5,000 people.”
Just in time for its public New Year’s Eve party, Planet Hollywood completed its build-out of an additional two-story room that overlooks Times Square and that will provide broadcast as well as catering. “It has the best view of the whole festivities – and the warmest,” bragged Earl.*