W hen an ad hoc citizens’ group formed to save Journal Square’s Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre in 1987, they had a clear and brilliant image of how the theater could be transformed that kept them going through nearly insurmountable obstacles.
Despite having virtually no money and little political influence, the non-profit group – incorporated formally as the "Friends of the Loew’s" (FOL) – was able to reach a number of significant milestones in its odyssey to rehabilitate the 74-year-old facility. When the theatre was slated for demolition by its previous owners in the late 1980s, the FOL worked tirelessly against it. When work needed to be done on the actual physical structure, FOL members put in countless hours making sure it remained intact.
For a massive clean-up of the building’s interior, the FOL launched a still-ongoing campaign that drew hundreds of volunteers to perform complicated work most often completed by experienced contractors. They scrubbed smoke, dust and mold from the theatre’s gold-leafed plaster walls and roof. They secured functional, high-quality film projection systems that were used in the theatre’s heyday. They cleaned up the theatre’s majestic lobby, acquired a pipe organ and held fundraisers.
And now, after more than 15 years of struggle and arduous work, the FOL is poised to fully restore the 1929 movie palace back to its original grandeur as one of New Jersey’s premiere stage and moving picture houses.
"They’ve done a Herculean job," said Councilman-at-Large Mariano Vega last week. "We want to give them additional reign to dazzle us even further."
Wrecking-ball blues
The beginning of the end for the Loew’s Jersey Theatre came in August 1986, when the Loews Corporation said it would close the theatre in August after a late-night showing of Friday the 13 VI – Jason Lives.
That October, Loews Corp. (which does not use an apostrophe in its name like the theater does) sold the theatre to Secaucus-based Hartz Mountain Industries, the largest real estate developer in New Jersey at the time, for $1.5 million.
Hartz Mountain said it planned to transform the old theatre into a $10 million office complex. But various groups of local preservationists – who would later be collectively known as FOL – banded together to ensure the building’s architectural elements would be saved.
The activists, headed by city residents Colin Egan, Patti Giordan, Walter Syrek and the late Ted Conrad, collected signatures from across the city, letting city officials know the public wanted the structure saved.
"I just couldn’t understand how we, as a city, could allow a building this beautiful to be torn down," Giordan said Thursday. "I’m a firm believer in preservation. This building could not only serve as a touchstone to the past but also as a resource for the future."
The FOL managed to convince the Jersey City Planning Board to rezone the theatre as an arts and entertainment center in April of 1987, thus restricting the developer from transforming the theatre into office space. Then-Mayor Anthony Cucci, who supported Hartz Mountain’s position, vetoed the Planning Board’s rezoning, which prompted the City Council to override the veto by a margin of one vote.
Hartz Mountain then sued the city, arguing that it needed to be compensated for its thwarted investment.
Lawsuit poses challenge
For the lawsuit, the FOL showed its support for the city by filing an amicus brief, an unsolicited legal document that argues one side of a particular court case. When a settlement was reached between the two parties, it stipulated that FOL be required to raise $4 million in five years.
During those years, the FOL trudged ahead at the theatre, maintaining the roof and cleaning up the lobby to have a summer’s worth of events in 1992. The group was then able to secure a $1 million matching grant from the New Jersey Historical Trust, which was issued to the city via the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), a semi-autonomous city agency charged with rehabilitating the city’s depressed commercial districts.
The battle to save the Loew’s came to a head when the FOL managed to commit the city to bond for the remaining $2 million needed as per the settlement. Before the bond could be issued, however, Hartz Mountain abruptly decided to sell the property to the city for the low price of $325,000.
"It was a long fight," said Colin Egan, current Loew’s director and a founding FOL member. "It took a while to sink in that we’d finally gotten the final vote. After going to so many City Council and Planning Board meetings, it just seemed to never end. When it got to the meeting where they voted to buy the theatre, there was a sense of relief, but also a sense of disbelief that it finally got there."
Clearing the mess
The next step came in January 1994, when the city leased the Loew’s Theatre to the EDC. The EDC responded by hiring Egan two months later, and the two groups – the private FOL and the city-affiliated EDC – set out to rehabilitate the theatre with the $2 million already in hand.
But the money quickly proved insufficient.
"We realized that the $2 million could only be used for stabilization," Egan said last week. "Four million would get into the ballpark of really getting [the project] off the ground."
When the theatre’s stabilization expenses were first assessed in 1987, the estimated cost was significantly lower than what Egan discovered them to be in the mid-1990s. One example of this is the exterior improvements, which were estimated at $75,000 in 1987. It cost the EDC more than $800,000 after the two-year job began in 1998, Egan said.
Other stabilization expenses included replacement of the building’s two boilers, which cost the theatre more than $100,000 in 1995. When Egan commissioned an estimate for the rehabilitation of the theatre’s lobby, that price alone was more than the seed money with which the EDC started out.
And to make matters worse, Egan was then told that no more money was available. After struggling with how to do the necessary work with no money, the FOL came up with an idea that soon proved to be the theatre’s saving grace.
"What let us cut the Gordian knot was the volunteer program," Egan said. "It was a strategic shift. It turned out that FOL was just as significant in the project as the $2 million."
The eight-year old volunteer program, which has brought more than 1,000 pairs of hands to the daunting task of fixing the theatre, has been responsible for a list of jobs that were initially intended to be done by hired contractors. These include:
- Taking out the walls that divided the theatre into a triplex;
- Removing, cleaning and replacing the upholstery on the theatre’s seats;
- Disassembling and restoring the marquee;
- Gutting out and refinishing the dressing rooms; and
- Reassembling the theatre’s projection booth.
The amount of work that volunteers have done at the theatre totals a minimum of $1 million, Egan said.
A new obstacle
The FOL’s astounding success in getting so much work done with such a limited budget hasn’t done much to alleviate a roadblock that is currently impeding the group’s progress.
Long in coming, the issue revolves around the FOL’s legal entitlement to the theatre, which gives the group authority to enter the building and proceed with work to both rehabilitate and create programming to generate income.
Between 1995 and 2001, the group entered the theatre to do restorative work despite having no legal arrangement with the city. This was because of Egan’s position as both a founding FOL member and an EDC project manager specifically assigned to the Loew’s.
"We were effectively squatters for those years," Egan said.
Although a licensing agreement between the city and the FOL came before the City Council for approval in June 2001, it was not officially executed by signatures from both City Hall and the EDC managers until April 2002.
The one-year agreement, which held within its language the capability of being renewed twice – also contained a clause stating it was subject to cancellation for any reason as long as the group was given notice of 60 days.
The FOL’s license was renewed in 2002 and 2003, but the group is angling for a more long-term arrangement.
In order for the FOL to both continue its work and do it effectively, it needs the authority to manage the building on a long-term basis, Egan said. Without it, the FOL can’t collect rental income or apply for grant monies to restore the historic structure. Its ability to book shows is also restricted because the FOL’s tenuous position as the theater’s management makes them a less-desirable venue for promoters.
And it’s seriously affecting the FOL’s work right now, FOL Patti Giordan said.
Moving FOL’s further ahead
Aside from the financial issues that are exacerbated by the lack of a license or lease, the group’s temporary hold of the theatre is also clouding FOL’s ongoing talks with a corporate, nationwide concert promoter, FOL members said. The group, which has a set of plans for long-term programming and fund-raising possibilities, also has other exciting projects in the pipeline.
"If we get the agreement, we’re going to commence ‘development’ fundraising," Egan said, "which will include a seat campaign [where donors purchase plaques that will be placed on the backs of the theatre’s 3,100 seats]. We’ll also go for larger donations. We’ll proceed with getting the balcony ready, which will allow us to bring in larger shows."
Programs with local arts groups and community groups are also planned.
Many in Jersey City and throughout the county say it’s a no-brainer. Todd Abramson, co-owner of Hoboken’s popular Maxwell’s restaurant and nightclub, said the Loew’s has the potential to be a highly successful regional arts venue.
"I think it would be tremendous," Abramson said Wednesday. "It’s a great space. It can also be a fulcrum for Jersey City’s Journal Square area in general, helping to bring more people to the area while helping some of the businesses as well."
There are some managers in City Hall, however, who say they aren’t quite convinced of the FOL’s capabilities in successfully running the theatre. According to published reports, the division of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce is getting ready to advertise a "Request For Proposals For Leadership And Management of the Loew’s Theater, as a non-profit entertainment center."
Councilman Vega also confirmed that some key players in Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham’s administration are reluctant to award the FOL a contract because of a perceived inability to guide the theatre’s development.
"First of all, I’d have to ask someone on what possible basis they would make that assessment," Egan said Thursday. "The ability to manage a theatre is determined by looking over the resources you got, assigning those resources and moving ahead. FOL has shown those abilities. I would need someone to explain to me why those same qualities wouldn’t go further."
Added Egan, "There’s a misconception that you have to be a big celebrity in show business to get big celebrities in show business. That’s simply not the case."
Councilman Vega, speaking on behalf of some of his colleagues, agreed.
"Do they have the talent to do it all? We don’t know," Vega said Thursday. "But I would be more willing to think a group with as much sweat equity as [the FOL] would."
To that end, Vega and fellow councilmen Jerremiah Healy and Steve Lipski – in whose ward the Loew’s Theatre is located – will be meeting with FOL representatives within the next few weeks to hammer out details for a series of long-term arrangements.
These drafts, both Egan and Vega said, should include a timeline of benchmarks that would hold the group accountable to certain strides in progress. If those strides aren’t met at the prescribed times, the license would then lapse. After being finalized, the drafts will be presented to the city’s business administration and legal department for approvals and recommendations.
"This is a city asset that we want to entrust to a group [to manage on behalf of the city]," Vega said. "The question is, ‘How do we move the project forward?’ When you find a group that has the talent, you want to empower them to do more of it."
City spokesman Stan Eason could not be reached for comment.
For more information on FOL, call (201) 798-6055 or visit www.loewsjersey.org.