Welcome to The New 42nd Street

Photos: Elliott Kaufman, Sharon Linietsky

About Us | Board | Funders | History of the Block

By the early 1980s, 42nd Street and Times Square had become a neglected stretch of urban decay. New York residents, commuters, and visitors avoided the area, and growing public concern compelled New York City and State to join forces to eradicate the blight. In 1990, guided by a plan to redevelop the area through the revitalization of 42nd Street's historic theaters, the City and State established The New 42nd Street.

Structured as an autonomous, nonprofit organization, The New 42nd Street was created to assume long-term responsibility and oversight for seven historic theaters on the block. As a condition of The New 42nd Street organization's 99-year lease, the City and State's 42nd Street Development Project also specified that two of these properties be designated for nonprofit use. With the neglected and outmoded theaters—Victory, Times Square, Selwyn, Lyric, Liberty, Empire, and Apollo—-as its raw materials, The New 42nd Street faced the challenge of revitalizing these pre-existing structures to form the nucleus of a new entertainment district for the 21st century.

The New 42nd Street sparked the revitalization of the block when it renovated the Victory and reopened it in December 1995 as The New Victory Theater--New York's first theater for kids and families. The street rapidly evolved after the debut of The New Victory Theater: in spring 1997, the Walt Disney Company opened the restored New Amsterdam Theatre; The New 42nd Street's Lyric and Apollo Theaters were leased to Livent (and subsequently Clear Channel Entertainment) to form the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in December 1997; the Liberty and Empire were leased to Forest City Ratner and then merged into an entertainment complex, which includes a 25-screen cineplex operated by American Multi-Cinemas and the renowned Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum; and, most recently, The New 42nd Street leased the Selwyn to the Roundabout Theatre Company, which opened the renovated theater in July 2000 as the "American Airlines Theatre." In July 2004, the Times Square theater was leased to *ecko unltd. to develop a new flagship retail location.

On June 21, 2000, The New 42nd Street launched its second project-mandated, nonprofit endeavor—-the New 42nd Street Studios. This ten-story, $33.7 million, state-of-the-art facility provides much needed rehearsal space, offices, and a 199-seat theater named The Duke on 42nd Street to national and international performing artists. Since its opening, the New 42nd Street Studios has been fully occupied by nonprofit dance and theater companies as well as commercial Broadway and Off Broadway productions, establishing a home for artists to create new and exciting works right at the "Crossroads of the World."

From the 1995 opening of The New Victory Theater through the recent addition of the New 42nd Street Studios, theater, music, and dance professionals, as well as visitors to the City, once again have joined the flow of New Yorkers on this reinvented, reinvigorated new 42nd Street.