The Planning & Zoning Commission this week voted unanimously to make a favorable referral for the town to enter into a new lease for The Playhouse—a key step ahead of the Feb. 9 public hearing where details about the prospective new operator are expected to come out.
Under state law, the local P&Z is required to weigh in when there’s a proposed new lease of a public building before the town’s legislative body votes on the lease itself.
Following a discussion where P&Z received very limited information about the lease itself—the Commission’s role is to decide whether leasing the building to a new operator is in line with the town’s long-term planning—members voted 9-0 in favor during their regular meeting Tuesday night.
Prior to the vote, some commissioners voiced concern that they had no details about the draft lease’s contents.
“The challenge is we don’t know the particulars of the lease, nor the term,” Commissioner John Engel said. “I would be comfortable not knowing if it was a short-term lease. But if it’s a long-term lease and there’s silence on all the details, it’s just too hard for me to get there.”
Yet Public Works Director Tiger Mann and Town Planner Sarah Carey assured P&Z that the new operator would be required to run a movie theater as expected and described in the Plan of Conservation and Development.
Carey said she hasn’t seen the draft lease and knows nothing of its contents, though “you cannot have a provision in there to say you [the new operator] have full right to do whatever you want.”
Mann said that the proposed new operator “has a lot of nice thoughts as far as how to expand and utilize the facility for movies and to expand the experience for everyone at the theater.”
Responding to concerns raised by some on P&Z, he added, “The proposed tenant does not have any thoughts to sublease the property, the upstairs.”
P&Z commissioners voting in favor included Engel, Tom Benton, Chris Hering, Eric Knowles, John Kriz, Secretary Krista Neilson, Allen Swerdlowe, Kristina Larson and Bill Pratt. Chair Dan Radman was absent.
Engel said he was voting in favor because P&Z got enough information about the lease that “the risk of them running another type of business is answered.”
“The real risk is that they [a new operator] will not use the entire space as you have identified for the benefit of the downtown and other businesses in the area,” he said. “But you answered that by saying it doesn’t make sense for them to operate this as anything less than a successful theater with food and drink and a gathering space.”
Closed at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and available to a new tenant since later that year, when Bow Tie Cinemas terminated its lease, the Playhouse originally was scheduled to reopen for the cupola-topped theater’s centennial (2023) but that date was pushed back amid construction delays. Its nearly $8 million renovation came in at more than twice the original budget, rankling town funding bodies. The Playhouse reopened under CinemaLab in June 2024, with a new concession area, pub and second-floor lounge that is available to the public as well as for private events.
Following financial difficulties, the town broke its lease with CinemaLab last year, and signed an agreement with the New Jersey-based company so that it will continue to operate the movie theater until a new operator is in place.
The following notice of a public hearing before the Town Council—scheduled for 7:30 p.m on Feb. 9 at Town Hall—appeared last week on the Elm Street movie theater: “To consider, hear public comment upon and take action on a proposal to lease the building known as The Playhouse, located at 93 Elm Street, New Canaan for a theater operator. The public hearing is intended to meet the public hearing requirement of Connecticut General Statutes Section 7-163e.”