Sometimes scaling back one plan can mean expansion of others. In the case of the Senator Theatre, a North Baltimore landmark with a recent history often centering on uncertainty, a recent change of plans will shift the 1939 art-deco building from mixed-use entertainment site with one movie screen to a multi-screen movie house with a smaller amount of dedicated space for eating and drinking.
On Saturday, March 19, operators James "Buzz" Cusack and Kathleen Cusack announced that 307 new cinema seats will be spread among three new theaters in the building just south of the intersection of York Road and Northern Parkway. Instead of previous plans for a small-plates restaurant in the large contiguous space north of the current movie auditorium, the building will be segmented to allow for a variety of first-run movies with different target audiences to be shown. There is also potential for new screening technology to be rolled out in the smaller boutique theaters, following the Senator's selection for a THX audio overhaul in 2003 that never completely came to pass.
"We're trying to get our hands on a digital 3-D projector for the summer when we're still just a single screen, but they're hard to come by and they're expensive," Kathleen Cusack says. All of the Senator's new equipment will be digital, which marks a major change from its current 35 mm and 70 mm film equipment.
Despite scrapping plans for a full restaurant on the site, the Senator will still add a wine bar and Sofi's Crepes, which also has a location in the Charles Theatre in the Station North neighborhood. The Charles is also operated by the Cusacks, who hold a 40-year lease on the city-owned Senator Theatre.
Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Kathleen Cusack, Senator Theatre operator