Former Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber can stay in the building until July 21 under an agreement announced by city officials Friday afternoon.
The agreement ensures the Senator will be able to show the projected summer blockbuster "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" as planned starting Wednesday, Chief Solicitor Larry Jenkins said. "He will have to vacate after the 21st," Jenkins said.
In the meantime, James "Buzz" Cusack and his daughter, Kathleen, who are negotiating with the city to take over the 71-year-old theater, will have free access to the building, Jenkins said. City officials had wanted Kiefaber out by Sunday, but he resisted, insisting he should be able to stay at least until an agreement between the city and the Cusacks is finalized and hinting that he might take some of the projection equipment with him if forced to leave so quickly. He said the state, not the city, had liens on the equipment, leaving him no choice but to "remove and protect" it.
Kiefaber's supporters welcomed the reprieve.
"Basically, I didn't understand the sudden urge to have to push Tom out the door," said Tom Harris, president of the volunteer Friends of the Senator group that has helped Kiefaber run the Senator in recent months, "when the citizens who were essentially the owners of the property … haven't had a chance to see the terms of the Cusack deal. What landlord in his right mind has the tenant move in without having the signature on the contract or knowing what's in the contract?"
The added time should have little effect on the transition, said Buzz Cusack, who has been operating the Charles Theatre since 1994. "It really doesn't affect us at all," he said. "Tom is being very gracious in letting us go in and prepare our proposal."
The Cusacks' plans for the Senator include opening small restaurants on both sides of the theater and adding a second, smaller screen in the rear of the property. Cusack also said the plans call for relocating the women's bathroom from the south to the north end of the building, in part so the bathroom can meet modern building codes. He said several stalls would need to be added, and the bathroom would have to be made handicapped-accessible.
The Senator would probably be closed for at least a few days during the transition, Cusack said. "We'll want to check things out, see how they are," he said. "We'll be able to start pretty soon, but I don't know how soon. It might be a few days, it might be a few weeks. That's not a big issue to me."
Kiefaber, whose maternal grandfather opened the Senator in 1939, lost it last year after he was unable to keep up with mortgage payments. The city bought the theater's mortgage from 1st Mariner Bank in May. After a July auction failed to find a buyer willing to pay more than $800,000 for the building, the city took control of the theater.
Kiefaber has been operating the Senator on a month-to-month lease, showing films, booking concerts and parties and holding karaoke nights. Besides "Eclipse," the Senator's website lists such coming attractions as the comedy "Six Nonsmokers," which screens today, and the Lyme disease documentary, "Under the Eightball," which screens Sunday and Monday.