Supervisor Eric Mar sent out his March newsletter recently which had a lot more specifics about the development being planned for the Alexandria Theater property:
My office just received word from the Planning Department that the environmental documents should be issued within the next couple of months for the Alexandria development. The plans for this site have changed quite a bit over the last few years and many discussions have taken place between the developer, the Planning Department and community partners and neighbors of the site such as the YMCA. As of now, the proposed project consists of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) including adaptive reuse of the Alexandria Theatre building and construction of a new 65,385 ground square feet mixed-use building with subsurface parking on the site of the existing surface parking lot on 18th Avenue north of the Alexandria.
The mixed-use building would contain approximately 6,550 ground square feet of retail, including a small eatery, 46 residential units on four floors, and underground parking. The garage would provide 136 parking spaces, including 84 commercial spaces through attendant-operated stacker parking, and 50 residential spaces, with 2 ADA parking spaces, and 32 bicycle parking spaces on two levels. The Alexandria is one of the key historic icons of our neighborhood. I and other longtime residents have fond movie going memories in the unique art deco building.
Within the historic Alexandria Theatre, a 250-seat boutique theatre would remain at the upper level and a new approximately 8,000 ground square foot restaurant would be constructed on a new second floor, set slightly back from the auditorium walls. Many character-defining features of the theater would be retained, including Art Deco features of the exterior, lobby, and auditorium. Changes to the exterior of the building consist of refurbishing the 1942-era blade sign and marquee and creating openings along the 18th Avenue for storefronts, protecting murals and decorative finishes within the auditorium and lobby. Please contact my office if you have ideas or concerns about the project.
As I hear more, I’ll keep you updated!
Sarah B.
I hope they do something with it before it rots any further. Keeping a theater in there too would be nice. Similarly I hate to see the old Albertson’s building at Clement/32nd rotting away, it really is starting to become decrepit. Which is shame since it is really still not very old and just sitting empty for years. Can it truly be that nobody in this town can make a business work there? Sad