Times Square’s Palace Theatre revamp gets City Council approval

Nearly three years after it was first announced, the unorthodox renovation of Times Square’s Palace Theatre is finally ready to move forward. On Thursday, the New York City Council gave the final approval to the theater, allowing the renovation and expansion work to move forward, according to Crain’s. The revamp of this interior landmark had already received the approval of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission back in 2015.

As plans stand right now, Maefield Development and the theater’s owner, Nederlander Organization want to raise the historic theater three stories up into the existing DoubleTree Hotel, that’s located above the Palace Theater. That would free up space to create 10,000 square feet of retail on the lower levels of the building.

The development team is not just renovating the interiors, but plans also call for work on the exterior, which will include restructuring the billboards affixed to the facade. They will look to replace the billboards with one giant LED screen that will wrap around the building, like similar digital billboards in the Times Square area. The Palace Theatre renovation will take place at a cost of $2.4 billion, and is scheduled to kick off later this summer. Work will likely wrap sometime in 2021.

• Council approves unusual renovation of Palace Theater [Crain’s]
• Times Square’s Palace Theater to Get $2B Revamp, Hotel [Curbed]