Lincoln Park Lofts gets city OK, goes for funding

The developer behind the Lincoln Park Lofts has one green light but is waiting for another before beginning construction in the stop-and-go game of property development.

The Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency got approval from the Lincoln Park Planning Commission but is now waiting for its state tax incentive paperwork to be processed. It plans to spend the rest of this year taking care of the behind-the- scenes work and will put shovels in the ground next spring.

"We're ready to go," says Louis Piszker, CEO of Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency. "Right now we're just waiting on funding."

Wayne Metro plans to turn the historic Park Theatre into retail space and about 40 loft apartments. Previously, it was pushing to tear down the circa-1925 landmark cinema and build a new mixed-use building in its place.

Piszker plans to preserve the Park Theatre's Streamline Moderne marquee, arguably the most recognizable downtown landmark, and build retail space and lofts in the theater and a new adjacent building. The C. Howard Crane-designed theater's interior was destroyed in the latter decades of the 20th Century when it became a porn palace in the heart of Lincoln Park's downtown.

Its porn palace days ended a few years ago when it closed. It has sat vacant ever since. Local preservationists have lobbied to have it returned to its glory days as a theater while city officials argued for its demolition. The compromise is the Lincoln Park Lofts.

Source: Louis Piszker, CEO of Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency
Writer: Jon Zemke

Lincoln Park Lofts gets city OK, goes for funding

Related Tags

Recommended Content

Across Our Network