Moving Forward on Federal Street

The Urban Redevelopment Authority is going to purchase the Garden Theater for $1.1 million, finally opening up that blighted section of the North Side to development, says the P-G's Diana Nelson Jones.

Although the price came down from $2.8 million in 1999, it is significantly more than the nothing it would have cost by seizure under eminent domain. Yet those appeals to the Supreme Court would have taken a very long time, and the outcome might have been disappointing.

CORRECTION: Both a recent PG editorial, and Mayoral Chief of Staff Yarone Zober, have pointed out that even upon a seizure by eminent domain, the city would still have to compensate the owners of the Garden Theater in some way. The Comet regrets this error. (2/21)

No word yet on whether the building will be utilized as a theater in some form. And no word yet on what to do about the convenience store just up the street that currently serves as gangland central.