Beach Theatre, Fenwick: ‘Way Beyond Rehabilitation’

CAPE MAY – If tickets were sold for the Zoning Board’s hearings of Frank Investments’ application to demolish the Beach Theatre, they would have to be season tickets, because there seems to be no end in sight to testimony with two additional meetings scheduled for January.The Zoning Board reconvened Wed. Nov. 10 for three and a half hours without finishing testimony.
Frank Investments portrayed the Beach Theatre as having no historic value, being beyond repair and not worth renovating.
The application for demolition has a long history with the city¹s Historic Preservation Commission (HPC), which denied a demolition certificate earlier this year causing Frank Investments to appeal the decision in Superior Court. The court sent the demolition application to the zoning board for a new hearing.
Frank Investment¹s Attorney, Steven Nehmad, continued to object to the presence of HPC attorney Robert Fineberg as “an advisory in this proceeding.” He said the HPC was only an advisory agency and his participation could cause a “reversible error,” the equivalent of a mistrial.
Fineberg countered that the city’s Construction Official followed the decisions of the HPC.
Stephen Fenwick, architect for Frank Investments and designer of six condominium units proposed to be built over the retail stores at the Beach Theatre after the auditorium is demolished, said at the time the city’s Planning Board approved the condominium project and the HPC approved demolition of the auditorium section, Frank Investments stripped the interior of the building in preparation for demolition “but at the last minute did not receive the demo permit.”
Fenwick said what remains is a “structural shell,” with no heating or cooling systems or electricity. He said if the cost to “bring the building back to life,” was more than 50 percent the appraised value of the entire structure, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regulations would require complying with flood regulations which would require flood proofing the building with a 36- inch tall barrier around the building.
He said under the Uniform Construction Code, fire control sprinklers would be required to be installed. Fenwick said it would be cheaper to build a new structure. The theater section of the building is “way beyond rehabilitation,” he said.
Nehmad said the theater’s owners have determined a cost ranging from $750,000 to $1 million to restore the theater section of the building. Fenwick said the county appraised the entire building for $900,000.
He said it was not economically feasible to restore the building to meet construction codes. Under cross-examination from Fineberg, Fenwick said he was aware Cape May’s HPC was seeking to have the Beach Theatre’s rating changed from non-historic status to contributing to the historic district.
Attorney Michele R. Donato, representing the Beach Theatre Foundation, asked Fenwick if the theater has been properly maintained, noting the city has a property maintenance code. He said the theater was slated for demolition.
“Have you ever heard of the term ‘demolition by neglect’?” she asked.
He said he was not familiar with the term. Donato said the term referred to allowing historic properties to deteriorate “thus making them less feasible to rehabilitate.” She said one of the city’s criteria to allow demolition is the economic feasibility of rehabilitating a building and the city adopted a property maintenance code to prevent property owners from demolishing structures by neglect.
She described it as a self created hardship. Nehmad said his client took appropriate steps to cease operation as a movie theater and prepared the interior for demolition. He said there were no city regulations that required the building continue to operate as a movie theater.
Donato asked Fenwick if he was aware FEMA could grant variances from flood elevation requirements. He said the regulations were complicated. She asked if Fenwick had seen an appraisal of the Beach Theatre.
Fenwick said he had only seen the assessed value. Donato said Fenwick was not sure if the cost of renovation would trigger FEMA’s 50 percent rule. He concurred.
Nehmad called George Thomas, an architectural historian for 40 years, author of 12 books and university professor, as a witness. Thomas authored the book, “Cape May, Queen of the Seaside Resorts,” and also helped prepared an architectural study of Cape May in the early 1970s.
He said he prepared a report for Frank Investments in May. Thomas said the Beach Theatre, by ordinance of Cape May, was not listed as a key or contributing building, it was not an historic building.
He said the Beach Theatre was “not part of the cultural narrative of Cape May.” Thomas said the theater did not fit into any of the architectural styles spelled out in the HPC’s book of design guidelines.
He said the style of the theater was more like buildings in Wildwood and was closer in style to an Acme store or a small strip mall. Thomas said it reflected inexpensive buildings of the 1950s.
An historic narrative prepared for the Beach Theatre Foundation said the theater had historical significance as a part of the old Hunt Theater chain. The narrative also references the Beach Theatre’s designer, William Harold Lee.
“In this instance, this is a building in which a narrative has been sort of thrown at the building hoping something would stick,” said Thomas.
He described the architecture of the theater as being in opposition to the architecture of Cape May. Nehmad asked Thomas if removal of the theater portion of the building would be detrimental to the city’s historic district. Thomas said it would have “no impact.”
He said the problem with the building is it sits on probably the most valuable piece of land in Cape May.
Fineberg cross-examined Thomas inquiring if he was paid for his report and appearance before the Zoning Board by Frank Investments. He confirmed that fact.
Fineberg said the city’s survey of historic building was an ongoing process and sites were identified before adoption by City Council. Thomas said a current historic survey of the Beach Theatre by the McCabe firm was a “horrible piece of work.”
Fineberg produced a December 2008 e-mail Thomas sent to resident Barbara Skinner in which he stated preservationist Joan Berkey missed a lot of important issues in a report she prepared about the significance of the Beach Theatre. Thomas indicated in the e-mail, Berkey’s report “gets you where you want to be as an “NR,” referring to nominating the theater to the National Register of Historic Places.
Thomas said her report was sloppy and poorly done and he recommended going to an individual National Register listing, independent of the historic district. He said the theater did not fit within the frame of the historic district.
In the email, Thomas acknowledged when the last historic survey was undertaken in 1992, the theater was 40 years old, 10 years shy of the 50 years required to be an historic building, said Fineberg.
The hearing will resume January 27 at 6:30 p.m.