Billionaire Investor Wants To Give The Harvard Square Theater A New Look
Movies could return to Harvard Square, but their home would have an entirely different look since the last time the projector ran.
Kirche, a development company owned by investor Gerald Chan, submitted its plans Tuesday to redevelop the shuttered Harvard Square Theater it has owned at 10 Church St. since 2015.
The theater first opened in 1926 and showed movies until closing in 2012. The project would include a 9K SF, two-screen movie theater, over 5K SF of ground-floor retail and 36K SF of offices on the four floors above. The building’s existing brick facade would be replaced by terra cotta tiles embedded with LEDs to allow changeable designs on the exterior.
“We are thrilled to bring life back to this building, not just on the inside,” Kirche Project Manager Nathan Wong said in a prepared statement. “The exterior also will be creative, vibrant and meant to engage the community.”
The developer has stressed the exterior technology is a screen or a projection, to display art or photography, not advertising.
Chan has become one of Harvard Square’s biggest landlords. The co-owner of Hong Kong-based real estate firm Hang Lung Group has spent more than $100M in recent years buying and redeveloping properties in and around Harvard Square, including 115 Mount Auburn St. and 24 JFK St. His development team is also behind the neighborhood restaurants Parsnip and Night Market.
An initial hearing for the theater redevelopment by the Cambridge Historical Commission is expected in September.
