The historic Pikes Theater in downtown Pikesville -- vacant since 1983 -- should be converted from a 1930s-style movie house to a gourmet Italian market and cafe, a Baltimore County review panel recommended yesterday.
The Italian Market at the Pikes would open next year selling spaghetti, garlic bread, imported olives and fine wines and would feature a coffee lounge and catering facility, all pending approval by the Baltimore County Revenue Authority.
The project would be developed by Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse for DiPasquale's Gourmet Italian Market of Highlandtown, with terms to be negotiated by the quasi-government agency.
The Italian market proposal was selected over a plan by Gil Stern, president of Motion Picture Entertainment Inc., to convert the theater into a movie house with a Dolby stereo system and skyboxes for private parties.
"The market proposal enhances Pikesville's restaurant row concept and provides an adaptive use of a historic facade -- and it restores the property to the county tax rolls," said County Councilman Kevin Kamenetz, a Democrat who represents Pikesville and who headed the review committee.
Kamenetz said the movie house proposal would have required the county government to spend up to $1 million on renovations at the Pikes, a proposal the review committee frowned upon.
"The county shouldn't be in the movie business," Kamenetz said.
He added that DiPasquale's would have to obtain a liquor license at the market as part of the deal with the Revenue Authority. That could be difficult under a state law, aimed at the Pikesville revitalization district, that allows liquor licenses for restaurant service bars only.
Stern said he hoped the Italian market proposal would be a boost for the community. "I wish them the best of luck, and anything that can make a go of that site, I'm in favor of it," he said.
The Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse plan calls for the market to keep the theater's original vaulted ceiling and stage and much of its interior walls. It also calls for a glass expansion and patio.
The Pikes, in the 900 block of Reisterstown Road, has been the subject of development plans since 1989.
The county Revenue Authority bought the theater and its nearly 1-acre site from the Pivin Family Trust in 1992 for $800,000 and leased it to the county.
A three-year community effort to convert the building into a performing arts center failed last year for lack of financing.
Pub Date: 8/08/97
