One member of the development team served as the volunteer owner's rep for a $30 million expansion of Baltimore's School for the Arts. Two others recently turned the dilapidated Census Building on Howard Street into Miller's Court, a $20 million center with affordable housing for teachers and offices for local nonprofits.
Now they've joined forces in an effort to save one of the most prominent landmarks in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District, the historic but dormant Parkway Theatre at 3-5 W. North Ave.
Samuel Polakoff, managing director of Cormony Development and a member of the Board of Overseers at the School for the Arts, and Donald and Thibault Manekin of Seawall Development Corp., the company behind Miller's Court, head a team that proposed to restore the 1915 Parkway Theatre as a setting for live entertainment.
Baltimore Development Corp. announced Monday that Polakoff and the Manekins are on one of two teams that responded to a request for proposals from groups that want to renovate the theater and adjacent properties. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. would be the general contractor, and Ziger/Snead and Cho Benn Holback + Associates would be the architects.
They propose to renovate the Parkway for use as a "multifaceted theatre able to accommodate a wide variety of entertainment," according to the development agency. Buildings at 1 W. North Ave. and 1820 N. Charles St. would be incorporated into the project through demolition, renovation and new construction.
The competing proposal from Virginia-based businessman Joseph E. "Teddy" Kim, made public last week, calls for the theater to become a 600-seat cinema and drafthouse that would be run by the same team that runs the Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse operation in Northern Virginia. The corner building would contain the Station North Steak House, and the building at 1820 N. Charles St. would contain seven or eight apartments. Brown Craig Turner of Baltimore would be the architect, and Branko Maximilian Bijelic would be the general contractor.
The development agency in May requested proposals that preserve the theater and adjoining properties for "cabaret, film, live music and live performance." The deadline for bids was Aug. 7.
"We are pleased to receive two interesting responses as we advance the revitalization of the Charles North area," said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, development corporation president.
