Renderings Offer 'Poetic View' of Possible Future of Metro Theater Site

As tenants begin to move in to the new Extell Development Corporation high rise towers between 100th and 99th streets on Broadway, the realtors hired to fill the storefronts have also begun publicizing their search for tenants.

Starting last week, passersby could catch a glimpse of the Winick Group realtor’s renderings hanging outside the old Metro Theater, designed to sell the space inside the new Extell building on the east side of Broadway and the site behind the movie theater facade.

Close up, the renderings are a bit curious. The image of the movie theater marquee features a mock store called “Benny’s,” but the window displays what many would recognize as Barnes & Noble logos. The Extell storefront windows feature Janovic hardware signs, and what is now the independent clothing store Rootchi is portrayed in the rendering with an Anthropologie clothing store logo in the window.

Ben Fox, president of Winick, denied that the rendering featured a Barnes & Noble logo. “It shows a store called Benny’s,” he said. “In any case, they’re [Barnes & Noble] not moving in.”

He also said he didn’t know what store would be occupying the Extell site, adding that the choice of window decorations was “just poetic license.”

Pressed for more of the company’s motivations behind their rendering’s design, Fox said, “Just to give it a sense of, um, life, if you will.”

Sara Vogel can be reached at sara.vogel@columbiaspectator.com.