RKO Keith’s, the historic and long-defunct theater in downtown Flushing, was purchased by a Chinese developer, Xinyuan Real Estate Co., for $66 million on Monday, the company announced in a press release.
The announcement marks the next chapter in a long history of changing hands and stalled development at the landmarked theatre, which is located at 135-35 Northern Boulevard.
The theater’s ornate lobby and ticket foyer were landmarked by the Landmarks Preservation Committee in 1984. Over the past two decades, the landmarked interior has made it challenging for developers to move forward on plans at the site. Xinyuan Real Estate will now be the next developer to try to repurpose the theatre.
Xinyuan Real Estate was one of the first Chinese real estate developers to enter the U.S. market. In September 2012, the company made its entry in the New York market by purchasing land at Kent Avenue and South 8th Street in Williamsburg. That project, known as the Oosten, is still under construction, and will contain over 200 units of luxury condos. The company has another project in Midtown Manhattan as well.
49 comments:
i don't see any preservation of the marquee... These guys are just waiting for everyone that CAN say something to either not be around anymore then they'll turn it into the other shit boxes they put up.
Enjoy white flight !!!
Looking at that drawing, it'll never get built. They seem to have forgotten the FAA turned down the LAST request for something not even that tall. There are serious height restrictions
Oh, I forgot, they are betting on Hillary becoming President, and she already took the bribe via the Clinton Foundation, so she'll order the FAA to make the waver
The other half of China ready to move in.
I don't see the ticket foyer in that picture. Are they making it an internal part of the project? maybe the building has the lobby for the theater as its lobby? They need to show a picture where the landmarked features are shown how they will be maintained.
Now it sold for $66 million? 14 years ago in 2002, it was bought by Shaya Boylmegreen for $14 million, then changed hands several times. It seems that developers don't have to build anything, just resell it to make $ money.
It's gonna be a beautiful wall
Just write the Mayor a check and he will change the landmark status. Then it is fast forward with construction.
Anyone my age (68) who grew up in the area (me: Jackson Heights) cannot but remember what an incredibly beautiful and ornate theater this WAS so many years ago. Its like will NEVER be duplicated anywhere ever again!
I can't remember how many double features (with cartoons) I saw there as a child, and as a teenager, the upper deck (the "balcony") was where we all went with our girlfriends to do a variety of things besides watching the film.
Places like this (landmarked or not) are disappearing from our lives at an alarming rate, not only in Queens, but in NYC and in America in general.
It seems that nothing we say or do will reverse this trend, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
Memories are all I have left....
anyone who thought any part of the Keith would be preserved by these invasive and conquering Asians is insane. they have no respect for history and as far as it being landmarked goes, this city doesn't give two shits about that title. write a big enough check and they'll let you demolish anything nowadays.
So its compounding value at 12% Year over year ($13M 02' ---> $66M 16').
This hot potato going to $190M in another 10 years.
So,...is this real growth increasing the value? Me thinks not.
This is mere Central Bank money printing.
When will the people learn?????????
End the Federal Reserve,.......that is all.
WHY IS THIS A SURPRISE??
See everyone in 10 months when they announce another change of ownership.
Since it was purchased by the Chinese, certainly the architectural firm is exclusively Chinese.
Take a close look at the 'architectural rendering' shown: anyone see a problem?
See the sign above the commercial establishment in the lower left.
The people who worked on the design of the building certainly knew that this project was for FLUSHING, NYC, USA, ie, 'in America', where the majority of people conduct business in English (for now, anyway).
What language is the sign for that commercial establishment shown?
Their intent is pretty clear, as it is with everywhere they go: overwhelm a neighborhood, whether residential or commercial, clear-out what and who was there before, and make this just another damn outpost of China.
You can see this now, where lip service is paid to NYC law requiring that storefront signage be prominently in English, with any additional language secondary (ie, smaller).
The opposite is of course the case now, if English is seen at all. Fuck them all.
Some things will never change. Here's a news report from 2011: https://vimeo.com/159705227
Now it sold for $66 million? 14 years ago in 2002, it was bought by Shaya Boylmegreen for $14 million, then changed hands several times. It seems that developers don't have to build anything, just resell it to make $ money.
.................................................................................
I totally agree!!!
It seems that nothing we say or do will reverse this trend, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
Memories are all I have left....
Damn straight.. money talks and so does progression. You should've taken pictures when it was still alive and fine and with you in it.. just in case you have alzeimers.. my grandpa did just that.
Since it was purchased by the Chinese, certainly the architectural firm is exclusively Chinese.
Wrong. You should learn to read more. It's be Pei Cobb Freed.. 2 of the 3 are not from China and this is a renown firm in NYC. ASSumption == ASS == stereotyping.
Take a close look at the 'architectural rendering' shown: anyone see a problem?
See the sign above the commercial establishment in the lower left.
The people who worked on the design of the building certainly knew that this project was for FLUSHING, NYC, USA, ie, 'in America', where the majority of people conduct business in English (for now, anyway).
What language is the sign for that commercial establishment shown?
Another bigoted and ignorant statement. Obviously the sign is in korean BECAUSE RIGHT NOW in august 2nd, 2016, IT IS IN KOREAN YOU DUMBUTT! Go to google and check it out! or go there and check it out if you really care. It's the same exact sign right now. The rendering is focusing on the building and of course you have to make the surrounding similar or close to it. They are building on RKO's land, not that area where you saw the magneta looking color korean sign. That korean sign has been there for years. smdh.
Their intent is pretty clear, as it is with everywhere they go: overwhelm a neighborhood, whether residential or commercial, clear-out what and who was there before, and make this just another damn outpost of China.
Again, that sign is written in Korean. Again it shows your ignorance and I'm not even korean or Chinese. With Korean words, it's more 'primitive' with circles, box and lines. With Chinese words it's more slashing and whips and angles lines.
The opposite is of course the case now, if English is seen at all. Fuck them all.
Fuck all ignorant bigots, which includes you, because I just proved that you are ignorant and bigotted with facts.
Thank you.
Looking at that drawing, it'll never get built. They seem to have forgotten the FAA turned down the LAST request for something not even that tall. There are serious height restrictions
That's what I'm wondering too. But then, skyview parc was made possible, so who knows. Plus the previous owner (not chinese) already have approved plans as long as there is some reservation of the landmark.
Plus although it's a shame the landmark is gone, it has to go. The inside pictures shows that is already dump without chairs and falling apart. I just don't see any reason to have a falling apart building when you can make a good use of it. Plus, don't tell me to go restore it. Who is going to provide funding? The government? yeah right.
I mean, we are all here saying this shit and that shit and complain and blah, but be real.. ASk yourself this, if you have 5 million dollars and one option is to restore it, WILL YOU PROVIDE THE MONEY to go and restore this place when the return is low or none? NO FREAKING WAY. If you say yes, you are lyihng to yourself. Won't you want your return on that 5 million bucks? (I'm saying 5 million because it's only for restoration.. which is plenty). If you complain about preservation and all, put your money where your mouth is. Otherwise, you will be the same as these developers (chinese or not becaus the previous one who bought it for 30 million is not chinese), so you shouldn't criticize them. Make good use of that abandon building. Only problem I have is that the traffic AT THAT POINT OF LOCATION will get even more congested and a headache.
Plus in terms of fengshui, that is not an ideal situation. I read about it and if it's in direct line of the street at a t-intersection, it's not good to live in. So maybe that is why it changed hands so many times because it's not as lucky? or good to live it? So I don't know who will buy the condos once it's built. Chinese buyers who believe in feng shui will not buy it. That is why I have been saying that skyview parc can be a big success when people here in the past is in denial when I say that. I know real estate, construction and psychology as oppose to some bigots here. So far I have been correct all along. I can be wrong, but most of the time I'm right.
Thanks for your tutorial on the architectural firm that will design this Chinese-owned development.
So the sign is in Korean, not Chinese, and 'is that way now': so what.
That doesn't change the main point: why isn't the sign in English, when (for FDNY purposes) that is the LAW in NYC?
What does that say about the attitude of the people toward the law, and Americans not fluent in the language of domination currently in play in this neighborhood?
Who is really saying 'fuck you' to whom here, and telling them - en masse - to just disappear?
Your rant proves the point.
Plus, don't tell me to go restore it. Who is going to provide funding? The government? yeah right.
How about the criminals that destroyed it? Does that work for you?
Wrong. You should learn to read more. It's be Pei Cobb Freed.. 2 of the 3 are not from China and this is a renown firm in NYC. ASSumption == ASS == stereotyping.
Here asshole read:
http://www.xyre.com/index.php/Into/overview/t/en
http://therealdeal.com/2016/08/01/with-rko-theater-deal-xinyuan-makes-big-bet-on-flushing/
Chinese you dumb ass! Just like you and your tiny dick.
The Chinese have bought Flushing's politicians first. Then the bought up its land.
Let Trump build a Great Wall around it and cede the ownership of Flooshing to China.
Let them pay their own taxes, provide infrastructure and services and not tax U.S. citizens for the cost of invading our country.
Close the Main Street stations. Let them boat to Manhattan.
Councilman Koo, Comgress member Meng, will support their countrymen in going for delandmarking the Keith's.
CB7? LOL! An ineffective bunch of crooks just want the Keith's to disappear.
Chuck Apelian will be the first to vote "yes" for this project. The CB7 bobble heads will nod "yes" in agreement,
What else can be done to remove what they consider an "eyesore"?
Maybe Chuck has already been paid well for his vote.
Bring on the FBI and give that crooked community board a good long enema!
C'mon , Preet, continue your good work!
The politicians in 1986 wanted to keep dark people of color from ruining Flushing real estate values.
They bent over backwards for the Chinese to develop Flushing, knowing that Asians hate Blacks and would financially drive them out.
Social engineering in its most disgusting form. It was successful. Is everybody happy now?
Or in the words of former assemblyman (Stavisky camp) Morton C. Hillman, "Thank God for the Asians. We didn't want Flushing to become a south Jamaica."
This was echoed by other poiticians in the pay of Asian developers.
Paul Vallone is the current REBNY stooge. He makes his money by lobbying for developers. Just check his client list.
When serving on CB7, he voted to approve practically every over development project. Dump this shady scoundrel or your quiet northeast will be developed and destroy your quality of life.
Wasn't Pei Cobb Feed the same architectural firm that the previous owner used?
LOL! Just write the mayor a check?
Hell, you don't have to go that high up.
Just write Chuck Apelian a check.
His long term association with CB7 needs federal investigation.
Squeeze $90,000+ a year, district manager Bitterman. She knows ALL of CB7s dirty secrets
and will give them up to avoid a jail term.
NYC had its Penn Staion. Flooshing has its RKO Keith's debacle!
YOUR POLITICIANS BEAR THE FOREMOST REONSIBILITY FOR ITS DESTRUCTION...
not its previous owners who were just following their predatory instincts.
Your political representatives were too busy protecting the developers instead of you and a national treasure.
Almost EVERY pol used the Keith's as their stepping stone, except Julia Harrison.
Since she was not cooperative, they tarred and feathered her as "anti Asian".
Sure. She brought the DOI, and some have said the FBI, down the throats of these crooks.
At her lowest political ebb, she still won her second term with 65% of the vote.
If she wasn't term limited out, she would have served a third, maybe fourth term.
Brava, Julia!
Now we have a pack of bobble head thieving politicians running the town.
It pays to steal big.
No more liberal Democrats, please. Vote Republican. Maybe even vote for Trump.
He's a sharp stick in the eye, if nothing more. Sometimes you need a good nihilist to break up the comfy, shady, status quo.
Do not worry. America will survive. Maybe for the better.
VOTE FOR TRUMP, INDEED!
But tell him you first want to have him stop having his Trump neckties made in China.
America for ALL law abiding Americans, regardless of their countries of origin.
Regarding the Keith's ,only the Chinese would be interested in buying it.
Flushing is a Chinatown. No round eyes are admitted.
Those who already hold property here, who are not Chinese, will eventually sell.
Main Street's 99 cents store image is complemented by its bloated streets gushing with rivers of people.
Who the fuck would want to live there except Chinese who are used to it.
Flushing's "success" is really a suck-sess!
Dump CB7s Chiuck Apelian. He has had his fingers into too many pies for too damed long.
Despite his feigning concern for overdevelopment, he has reaped a lot supporting it!
Examine his IRS filings, Preet. Follow the money!
One of the requirements set down by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
is that workers on the Keith's site "BE FLUENT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE" so as to avoid any accidental damage to the landmark spaces!
So much for your doubts and general bigotry.
Contrast what was done with the fabulous restoration of the Loew's Kings in our neighboring borough of Brooklyn with the sorry state of affairs with the RKO Keith's.
The Keith's decay only mirrors the political corruption that allowed it to rot.
NOBODY ever made a move to really punish Tommy Huang. When then borough president Shulman was asked why her office did not pursue serious penalties for this criminal her answer was, "Hasnt't he (Tommy Huang) suffered enough? He hasn't been able to buil for two years".
Of course borough hall would not go beyond wrist slapping Huang. Shulman's boss, Donald Manes, got well paid off with an illegal fundraiser, in Taiwan ny Huang.
Certain CB7 members were said to have gone along on what was known as a "junket to Taipei".
Reggie Colletta where are you today? Still with us? Uh Myra Baird Herce...did you take the trip?
Between a push from the west by Corona's "troublesome" Latinos and a push from the south by Jamaica's "troublesome " Blacks....LMAO....Flushing was saved by the Orientals. The old time real estate moguls like Schwartz, Mehran, Gerson, etc. we're most likely pleased.
But some big time lawyer players bemoaned that fact that the Taiwanese-Chinese bloated the real estate values too fast which led to an underserved overbuilt town. It is still served by an antiquated 3 track #7 system.
Lots of luck getting to work on time unless you opt to board those unlicensed $1 Asian jitneys to Manhattan.
Maybe their prices have gone up to keep up with inflation.
There is no marquee just the steel work left. There is no fucking theater anymore! What's the point of a marquee?
These are, more or less, the same plans that Shya Boymelgreen first presented.
If there are any deviations from the previous plans, then the whole process goes back through...is it ULURP ......
community board, borough hall, then the board of standards and appeals?
LOL!
Let's make it an even 1/2 dozen.
Wanna bet this new owner flips the property to another...a sixth...for about 80 to 90 million dollars?
Each time the property changes hand the seller makes millions....maybe LAUNDERS some money in the process!
The FBI has a top forensic accounting squad. Maybe they should examine the long sordid financial histor of the Ksith's being flip flopped!
Yawn, another owner.
Wake me when the project is complete.
1986-2016....a long time for a building to sit and rot , unheated, waterlogged, without its sump pumps pumping.
This is the way America treats its national treasures. This is the way the shady LPC
bends over for mayors and developers.
But, alas, this is Queens. We're it the golden isle of Manhattan, this story would have a far better ending.
Accept the Keith's as Queens' Film Noir!
China razed some of its Beijing historic sites to make way for the Olympics, which were a bust..
What respect will a Beijing owner have for the Keith's?
Don't hold your breath!
It will be razed in its entirety. If not now, in the near future.
Visit the Loew's Jersey for a real movie palace experience.
PATH trains to Journal Square. Right across the street, as you exit, sits the Jersey!
Last time I went I saw the silent film...35mm projection tinted...with restored pipe organ accompaniment for only $10.
I had to go to another state to see what the Keith's could have provided in my own NYC town.
Bravo to the Brooklyn Loew's Kings. Shame on Flushing's political crooks.
Into new ownership once again!
What will be the final outcome? Can we expect it within the next five years?
Will the former theater be unlandmarked or its landmark portions respectfully restored.
Or, will the property be flipped once again?
Our committee has been involved with this site since the early 1980s.
We are still here for what we can do.
Jerry Rotondi,
for the Commitee To Save The RKO Keith's Theatre of Flushing Inc.
Flushing was saved by the Orientals
That is major bullshit. Destroyed more like it.
And now they are coming for the rest of the North East Queens.
$66M for this run down piece of Americana indeed should be investigated by the feds.
Where exactly is all the infrastructure required to have all these mega buildings, housing thousands and thousands of people?
Here we have 35+ years of massive corruption and nothing is being done.
Yes, I go to the Loew's Jersey.
It is great and easier to get to by public transportation that the Loew's Kings.
Only one hour door to door via LIRR and PATH.
From 3.4 million, in 1986 to its current 66 million dollar price tag in 2016....
It seems like the only success story connected with the Keith's is the money each seller made in flipping that property.
Mucho dinero, amigo!
Indeed! Maybe some money laundering was involved too!
The Boymelgreen cost for this building was about $85,000,000 back then.
How can a Beijing buyer who just paid 666 million make a profit?
Will his new building cost him $125,000,000 to build?
The Boymelgreen estimate for restoring the landmark spaces ran about $20,000,000 and the past owner about $5,000,000.
That's a lot of wiggle room. How huch is Beijing gonna have to pony up?
Yes...subpoena Marilyn Bitterman. She knows where CB7's dirty laundry is kept.
Maybe it's money laundering proceeds too! Maybe she got her share to play dumb all of these years.
IRS should work with the FBI and check out ALL of CB7 members' tax returns.
Audit that bunch.
Cannot wait until CB7 reviews these plans.
I would not miss that show for the world.
I always get a kick out of seeing these token members flex their flabby muscles.
I particularly enjoy Pablo's performances followed by the concerned Tyler Cassel.
What a show. What a blow. What a snow job.
As if any of them had any real power being a purely a advisory toy government group.
The only guy who makes some hay with his position is follow the buck Chuck Apelian!
He even ran Paul Vallone's campaign. Proud that his printing firm Presstone did Don Paulie's bus shelter posters.
Chuck got that job just before Vallone left the community board.
Who bought who, here?
Vallone is in the pocket of REBNY.
Whose pockets is Apelian in? Whichever pocket has the most money.
Whose pockets all of them are in?
In all pockets that have money! Ok, maybe some briefcases too.
As long as the R1-2A zoning in northeast Queens remains intact...which it will...Oriental developers can only build small residential homes NOT supersized buildings. The deal struck long ago was a deal to,contain the high density in the downtown Flushing hub.
Crooked Chuck Apelian votes for high density downtown but protects his low density cul de sac home in northeast Flushing.
Uh where did Chuck get that vintage style NYC lamp post to decorate his street? This man is shady. He needs the FBI up his ass! John Liu, his neighbor, already got his. Now it's time for follow the buck Chuck to,take his turn in the barrel. Ream him good, Preet!
Bravo Jerry R!
You predicted the flipping of the Keith's to a fifth owner.
Now here it is!
Wanna pick me a winning lottery number?
The Keith's is a vehicle for Chinese money laundering.
This Beijing owner will flip the property again...UNLESS....
he gets the landmark status overturned.
Anyone taking bets on this?
To the blogger who insists on saying: "Fuck all ignorant bigots" -- methinks you are looking in the mirror. After all, it takes one to know one. And, clean up your language or we'll all think you were raised in the gutter or come from a third-world country and don't know any words with more than one syllable. And have a nice day!
The RKO Keith has been closed for over 30 years and has been an abandoned site in an area that has been reinvigorated by Asians, working class whites who used to live in the area are never returning so no point whining about the past. At least Flushing is not looking like Jamaica, Queens Village, and Rosedale. Those areas are sorry excuses for neighborhoods that have become poverty stricken ghettos, at least the Asians bring in economic activity and keep up property prices.
Also nearby Jackson Heights and Woodside is nothing to boast about either, at least the Asians are attempting to make a Queens neighborhood appear upmarket.
Post a Comment