The Ziegfeld Theater has hosted several New York City premieres for movies and TV series during its time, like Jennifer Lawrence's film "Joy," Olivia Wilde's new HBO series, "Vinyl," and the new Amy Poehler and Tina Fey comedy, "Sisters."
Midtown's iconic movie palace at 141 W. 54th Street will be redeveloped into "a spectacular high-end event space." The soon to be called Ziegfeld Ballroom will be a hub for New York City society galas and corporate events. After two years of renovations, the new structure will open in the fall of 2017.
The Ziegfeld Ballroom will be operated by majority of the partners behind Gotham Hall, another NYC event space located inside a landmarked former bank at Broadway and West 36th Street.
The new plans for Ziegfeld Theater would require a ballroom spanning 10,000 square feet sans the columns, in addition to mezzanine meeting rooms and state-of-the-art electronic facilities.
The new ballroom would also have art deco interiors, which is a nod to its predecessor. The New York Post reports:
"The ballroom's art deco design will also pay homage to the Ziegfeld's predecessor on Seventh Avenue, which was opened by showman Florenz Ziegfeld, which was torn down for the office building adjoining the newer theater."
Fisher Brothers real estate company, who served as the Ziegfeld Theater's landlord, notified the cinema's leaseholder, Cablevision, regarding a new tenant for the building. The movie theater is expected to close down in the next few weeks.
Opening in 1969, the Ziegfeld is Manhattan's "last remaining large single-screen showplace used exclusively for movies with 1,300 seats (there is only one remaining single-screen movie venue in the borough, the 571-seat Paris)."
As it turns out, the accumulation of Ziegfeld's losses over the past few years was the reason behind the development. In recent years, the movie theater had lost more than $1 million per year.
