Interior restrictions added for Senator Theatre

Changes to the interior of Baltimore's embattled Senator Theatre must now be approved by the city's Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation.

Tuesday's move to protect the 70-year-old movie house is the first time the preservation panel would have authority over the inside of a building. Previous action has affected only exteriors.

"Fans of the Senator Theatre want to preserve the building and see it continue as a film and performing arts venue," said CHAP Chairman Tyler Gearhart. "Given its uncertain future, interior designation is the best way to ensure that happens."

Calling it an "unprecedented action," Senator owner Tom Kiefaber continued to oppose the designation. He said it lessens the building's value and decreases the chance that anyone from the private sector would want to purchase it.

The legislation, he told the board, is "overreaching and probably unconstitutional." He also said it would unduly restrict property owners, especially business owners, who need to make necessary renovations to their space.

He may have a point, a local real estate consultant said Tuesday. "The more restrictions you put on a property, the lower people will [go] in the marketplace," Alfred Barry III said, "because they don't know how those restrictions might pan out."

The York Road theater's lobby and connecting concession area, as well as the men's and ladies' lounges, auditorium and second-floor mezzanine will be affected by the designation. A City Council vote in 2007 gave CHAP the ability to protect historically and aesthetically significant building interiors.

Kiefaber, whose 20-year tenure as the Senator's owner will likely come to an end in the coming weeks, continued to question CHAP's timing in seeking to protect the Senator's interior. Since ending first-run movie exhibitions at the theater March 15, Kiefaber has contended that the specter of losing control over the building's interior scared off a pair of potential investors.

Once the Senator received written notice of the CHAP proposal, Kiefaber said in prepared remarks, "both negotiations ... ended abruptly within 24 hours."

Kiefaber urged CHAP members to at least put off a vote on the proposal, arguing that several neighborhood associations in the vicinity of the Senator were neither notified of the coming vote nor consulted about the proposal, as required by CHAP bylaws.

CHAP Executive Director Kathleen Kotarba, however, said all groups had been properly notified.

The Senator, which has been in Kiefaber's family ever since opening in 1939, narrowly avoided being sold at a foreclosure auction last month.