Posted in the Phila Daily News on Tue, Mar. 09, 2004

Theatre Co. eyes move

to Avenue of the Arts
By SONO MOTOYAMA
sono@phillynews.com


The Philadelphia Theatre Company, now in its 28th season, has long hoped to move to its own space on Broad Street. And now it looks as though that will happen.

In a move that will extend the Avenue of the Arts farther south, the city announced Friday that a 450-seat theater will be built at Broad and Pine streets.

Mayor Street said in a speech to the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Friday that the city had reached an agreement with Dranoff Properties, headed by developer Carl Dranoff, to build 167 condominiums with retail space and, most significantly for the Avenue of the Arts, performance space for the Philadelphia Theatre Company.

Currently, PTC, a nonprofit theater dedicated to producing the works of contemporary American playwrights, rents space from Plays & Players Theater, on Delancey Street.

Dranoff could not be reached for comment. And, citing a confidentiality agreement with Dranoff, Sheldon Thompson, PTC board president, said he could not remark on the project.

However, Blanka Zizka, co-artistic director of the Wilma Theater, one block north of the proposed development, knows a little something about trying to develop a theater on Broad Street.

"It took us 10 years, but we were much smaller than Philadelphia Theatre company is now," she said of the Wilma.

"It was during the real estate crisis in Philadelphia. There were a lot of complications. Philadelphia Theatre Company is in a much better position to build a capital campaign," she added, noting that PTC is already based in a 300-seat house, so making the jump to a 450-seat theater would not be such a stretch.

And the time seems to be right to expand the Avenue of the Arts, since the Kimmel Center - which acts as a magnet - is now established. Zizka said her own subscription base grew by 1,000 after the Kimmel Center opened.

Said City Commerce Director Stephanie Nadoff: "I think it's a wonderful project, first of all that a developer like Carl Dranoff, who has been so successful in other venues, has chosen to develop on the Avenue of the Arts. The Avenue of the Arts is a thriving and wonderful arts destination, and to bring this strong residential component and to make room for retail and the Philadelphia Theatre Company is a slam-dunk."

The $88 million, 31-floor project - currently a parking lot on land owned by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. - was selected among other contenders as "the most responsive to criteria we identified," said John Grady, PIDC senior vice president.

He said that the agency sought a project that "would add to the cultural, entertainment vibrancy on the Avenue of the Arts; have financial viability; and would offer a return to the public," in terms of the price for the land. He noted that the contract is still pending.