Potential owners surface for shuttered Regent Square Theater

While the Regent Square Theater sits quiet, there is interest in the movie screen illuminating again.

The Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media closed the South Braddock Avenue movie theater on Nov. 25 for financial reasons.

The PCAM continues to explore options for the theater, spokeswoman Hannah Arnold said in an email Thursday. But no decisions beyond closing the theater and ceasing programming have been made at this point, she said.

“Any offers to purchase the property have been unsolicited,” she said, adding there is no current appraisal of the building.

Allegheny County property records indicate the total assessed value of the theater is $278,400.

Lawrenceville’s Row House Cinema owner Brian Mendelssohn said via email his staff was sad to see a local film institution close.

“The Regent is Pittsburgh’s classic art-house cinema and an important part of the Pittsburgh film scene,” he said. “Losing it is bad for everyone.”

He said he would love to see the Regent’s doors reopen, and he believes he is in a position to step in to make that happen. Mendelssohn is a principal at Botero Development, focused on residential, retail and office spaces in the city.

“The Row House staff and Row House community are all passionate about film, and we’ve already had a lot of inquiries about whether or not we can reopen the Regent,” he said. “We hope we can.”

When we got a chance to book a feature-length compilation of weirdo teens in the 1980s and 1990s with camcorders spoofing Friday The 13th and Jason Voorhees... you know we jumped on it. One screening only! Tomorrow at Row House Cinema.
The F13th Fan Fil… https://t.co/AmZfa0I8FF pic.twitter.com/bwiW9tyNkI

— Row House Cinema (@RowHouseCinema) December 12, 2019

Mendelssohn said it is still early in the process, so he’s not really thinking about specific programming.

“But we do know that we want the Regent to remain an art-house cinema, where Pittsburgh can see some amazing art films that aren’t screening anywhere else,” he said.

So does Kathryn Spitz Cohan, executive director of Film Pittsburgh, which produces film festivals such as JFilm (focused on Jewish-themed work) and Pittsburgh Shorts, and presents other programming.

But PCAM “still owns it [and] ultimately they will make the decision” about its future, Spitz Cohan said. “From my vantage point, I would love to see the theater reopen and stay an art-house theater, and I think that is what the neighborhood wants. I think it is important to include the community in any conversations of what is going to happen there.

“My concern is it will become a Rite Aid,” she said.

The space doesn’t work for Film Pittsburgh, she said, because the bathrooms aren’t great and the lobby isn’t big enough, although the theater accommodates enough patrons.

“We would love to have our own theater,” she said.