PITTSBURGH, PA – With the future of the city’s last remaining adult theater still unknown, officials in Pittsburgh say they aren’t waiting for a final word to push ahead with urban renewal plans that have long been on hold due to a protracted legal battle with the theater’s owner.The Garden Theatre, which has been in operation as an adult movie theater since 1972, has been at the center of a contentious urban renewal battle in Pittsburgh for close to 10 years, according to reports in the Associated Press.
The battle began in the 1990’s when Garden’s owner, New Yorker George Androtsakis, refused to sell his theater to the city in accordance with a redevelopment plan for the North Side neighborhood.
Rather than relent under pressure from the city, Androtsakis got embroiled in a costly legal battle that has since cost both sides hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to AP reports.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in December upheld the city’s effort to take over the theater through eminent domain legislation. Now, although Androtsakis is expected to appeal the ruling, city officials say they will push ahead with their plans and not wait for the court to rule before doing so.
“We could have used the Garden Theatre as an excuse, as has been done in the past,” said Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl at a news conference earlier this month. “But I’ve taken the mind-set, ‘let’s get it done.’”
In prior years, the city had proceeded guided by the notion that “until the Garden Theatre was in our control, we couldn’t really offer a developer the property,” said Jerome Dettore, executive director of Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, because it was believed that the theater would “reduce or impede a developer in thinking about the highest and best uses.”
“We saw the Garden Theatre as a fly in the ointment,” said Dettore, according to the AP. “We’ve since modified our thinking.”
“We don’t really care about the Garden at this point,” said state Senator Jim Ferlo, according to the AP. “The Garden, legally, is going to take whatever course it’s going to take. We’re not going to sit around any longer and wait for that issue. We need to get moving.”
One observer told the AP that the new attitude being expressed by Pittsburgh officials is part of an overall change in approach to adult businesses. David Wilson, a professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, said in the past cities have fought adult businesses for moral reasons, but these days city’s are increasingly approaching the issue as a battle for investor’s money and an effort to create jobs.
“It’s justified by the city on the grounds that we’ve got to be economically competitive like never before,” said Wilson, adding that there is an “obsession” on the part of many city officials with global competition, an obsession that leads such officials to remove all perceived obstacles to attracting commerce – like having a conspicuous adult theater in the middle of a block that has otherwise been “renewed.”
Peter Georgiades, an attorney who represented Androtsakis for close to 20 years, but has not represented the theater owner since 2004, told the AP that the Garden became an adult theater in 1972 largely because the run-down neighborhood couldn’t support any other manner of theater at the time.
“They couldn’t fill the theater with anything else,” said Georgiades, according to the AP. “People will travel from the next county to go to an adult theater, but people don’t go through nasty neighborhoods with abandoned buildings to see Lethal Weapon 2.”
Georgiades added that the city had refused to hear a proposal that Androtsakis came up with, which would have turned the theater into a possibly-more-palatable multiplex theater – perhaps because Androtsakis’ plan would have included a screen dedicated to the showing of adult films.
The renewal plan includes both new residential and commercial construction, including a possible casino and accompanying hotel, and a new library. In addition, Legendary Pittsburgh Steeler running back Franco Harris intends to open a Mediterranean-themed café in what is currently a vacant building just a few doors down from the Garden Theatre.
Mark Fatla, an attorney who serves as the executive director of the North Side Leadership Conference, said extended fights over property like the Garden in areas up for renewal is just the nature of the beast.
“This isn’t a sprint, this is a marathon,” Fatla said of the North Side renewal project. “These projects routinely take years. They’re difficult, they’re fraught with problems, they require political will, they require organized communities, and they just require unrelenting efforts.”
