Two months of renovation work remains to be completed.
By: David Weinstein
Maybe the Grinch had something to do with it.
The Garden Theater won’t reopen for the holiday season as was hoped.
There are two months or more of renovation work still to be completed before the 80-year-old movie house on Nassau Street reopens for business, Pam Hersh, director of community and state affairs for Princeton University, indicated this week.
Closed since the first week of August, the Garden Theater may reopen by the end of January, she said.
The university – which owns the building and leases it to The Theater Management Corp. of New York under a 15-year deal begun in 1993 – is paying for the renovations.
When the project began, officials said they hoped to reopen the theater in time for the holiday season. But they cautioned that because of the age of the building, unanticipated conditions could lengthen the timeline of the project and the cost of the renovations, originally estimated at $600,000.
During the course of the renovations, Ms. Hersh said, asbestos was discovered. That cleanup has helped to set back the completion date.
Ms. Hersh declined to comment on the new price tag for the project.
"It’s an expensive project," she said.
Renovation work has mainly taken place inside the building and has been continuous, Ms. Hersh said. But after months of work hidden from the public eye, the renovation project emerged from the inside of the theater this week.
A chain-link construction fence was constructed in a semicircle around the facade of the cinema house to keep passersby from walking too close to the work area, Ms. Hersh explained.
Wednesday morning, one worker was painting the facade of the theater with a paint roller attached to a long pole.
The project includes adding more comfortable seating and a section for disabled customers, as well as new viewing screens, projectors and sound system. The theater’s restrooms also will be refurbished.
The theater opened in September 1920 with a showing of "Civilian Clothes" starring Thomas Meighan.