Spring construction start expected for Brooklyn Heights Cinema building condo makeover

November 19, 2015 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Developers expect to start construction in spring 2016 on the makeover of the Brooklyn Heights Cinema into a condo building, shown in this rendering. Rendering by Morris Adjmi Architects

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O Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? And with it, the construction crews.

The developers who plan to turn Brooklyn Heights’ shuttered movie theater into condos expect to start construction in spring 2016 and complete the job in fall 2017, according to Colin Lieu, who handles social media for Madison Estates.

The developer and its joint-venture partner JMH Development are planning a five-story building with about 24,000 square feet of residential space and 1,200 square feet of ground-floor retail at 70 Henry St., Lieu said in an email.

The property is the site of the beloved, beleaguered Brooklyn Heights Cinema, which closed in August 2014 after 44 years in business.

On Oct. 29, the developers filed plans with the city Buildings Department for mechanical, plumbing, sprinkler and structural work at 70 Henry St., online records indicate.

This past June, the developers received the city Landmarks Preservation Commission’s approval for Morris Adjmi Architects’ design for the movie theater makeover.

As the Brooklyn Eagle previously reported, the plan entails the construction of a three-story brick addition atop the shell of the low-rise cinema building. The white paint will be stripped off the existing structure’s red-brick exterior.

There will be five condos in the project — including a maisonette, meaning a ground-floor and second-floor apartment with its own entrance door on the Orange Street side of the building.

The Brooklyn Heights Cinema building’s former owner, Tom Caruana, sold the property to the developers after his plans to construct an apartment building with room for a movie theater inside it met with objections from the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Caruana’s family company had owned the property since 1968.