The idea to turn Flushing's landmarked but dilapidated RKO Keith's Theatre into apartments is not a new one. Brooklyn favorite Shaya Boymelgreen had it a few years ago, until his split with Lev Leviev led him to give up the site. Now new theater owner Patrick Thompson, who picked up the site last year, wants to bring Boymelgreen's idea back, bigger than before. Instead of the previously-approved 200 residential units and 229 parking spaces, Thompson has filed a Board of Standards and Appeals application for 357 market-rate rental units and 360 parking spaces, Crain's and the Post report. The building remake?which will keep the original theater's three-story lobby and the architects at Studio V?could be done as soon as 2013. The BSA will probably vote on the changes in March. In the meantime, make like a BSA member and ponder the renderings.
· Landmark Flushing theater to sprout big apt. complex [Crain's]
· RKO Keith's Theatre, a dilapidated movie palace, to be reborn as apartment complex [NYP]
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