$16 million project will mean major productions can run longer in Syracuse.
Construction work has begun on the expansion of the Landmark Theatre stage, which was built in 1928. Demolition will begin in November.Syracuse, NY -- A $16 million renovation that will turn the Landmark Theatre into a performing arts center is under way.
Officials from the theater were joined by Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Assemblyman William Magnarelli, D-Syracuse, and local economic development officials Wednesday to mark the start of the long-planned expansion of the theater’s stage.
Opened on Feb. 18, 1928, as Loew’s State Theatre, the extremely ornate theater was built as a movie palace, one of six that graced Salina Street in downtown Syracuse at the time.
The only one of the six remaining, the 2,900-seat Landmark still shows movies, but the theater has long derived most of its revenues from renting out its lobby for functions and hosting concerts and performing arts shows on its stage.
The limited size of the stage, though, has greatly restricted the types of shows the theater, now operated by a nonprofit corporation, can bring in. A major expansion of the stage and related back-stage facilities will allow the facility to attract musicals and Broadway-type theatrical productions.
Cantor called the theater a “central piece” of her Connective Corridor initiative, an effort to create greater ties between Syracuse University and downtown. She said the university will bring some of its dance and other productions to the theater.
“It’s a beacon for connecting the past with the future,” she said.
David Mankiewicz, executive director of the Downtown Committee, a nonprofit downtown management group, said the stage expansion will allow major theatrical and musical productions that currently have short runs in Syracuse to have much longer stays here.
Such shows often are held at the county Civic Center a few blocks away, but scheduling limitations at that facility mean they often only stay for three days before heading to Rochester for much longer and successful runs, he said.
James Breuer, president of Hueber-Breuer Construction Co., said asbestos removal recently began on the stage. Demolition of the stage will start the first week of November, and the entire project will be completed in October next year, he said.
State grants of $6.6 million, including a $6.5 million Assembly grant that Magnarelli helped to secure, a $494,000 federal grant, and $2.5 million in historic tax credits are funding $9.6 million of the construction. A consortium of local banks is providing $6.7 million in loans.
Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3148.
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