The Beauty Within

Lyric Theater application delayed as legal drama looms

 By Angie Hargot

The Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Board says the final Lyric Theater expansion plan (shown here) needs work.

In a small meeting room within the addition to the historic Lyric Theater, Dorothy Jenkins Fields, founder of the Black Archives, and Elizabeth Williams, the Archives’ executive director, proudly showed off renderings of the next phase of the theater’s redevelopment.

Standing before the small stage last week, Fields recounted the Lyric’s history and her organization’s efforts to breathe still more life into the landmark. And she isn’t done yet. The Black Archives plans to add a four-story, 9,000-square-foot rear addition to the existing 6,000-square-foot theater.

“We want to expand the stage so when you come for your dance recital you won’t fall off,” Fields said with a smile. “We’ve maintained the charm and character of an intimate theater” in the restorations, she said.

Unfortunately, the Black Archives’ expansion efforts have been slowed by criticisms from the city’s historic board and litigation over who controls the land where the theater wants to expand.

The Lyric Theater, located at 813 N.W. Second Ave., opened in 1913 with 400 seats. The oldest theater still standing in Miami, the Lyric is also the only surviving building from the days when the district, known as “Little Broadway,” was filled with nightclubs and restaurants that thrived for decades in Overtown — until an expressway was built through it.

Owned and operated by Geder Walker, the Lyric Theater hosted such performers as Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sam Cooke, Redd Foxx, Mary Wells, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Patti LaBelle and more than 100 others.

But Overtown began to decline when I-95 was built through it in the 1960s. The Lyric closed in the same decade. It did not reopen until 1988, when it was acquired by the Black Archives History and Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places a year later and restorations began.  Using $10 million that the Black Archives raised from public and private sources, the Lyric reopened in 2000. Three years later, the Black Archives embarked on plans to build a theater addition that includes a gift shop, catering facility, kitchen, new meeting areas, dressing rooms and a loading dock.

To complete the project’s final phase, the Lyric needs to expand onto a 50-foot-wide portion of the adjacent property. In November, Miami’s Community Redevelopment Agency was prepared to donate the sliver of land smaller than an Olympic swimming pool to the Black Archives, pending a public bidding process required by the state.

Now there’s another rub: The Miami-Dade County Commission wants to take back ownership of the parcel the Lyric plans to expand on, as well as two adjacent blocks where the $200 million Sawyers Walk project, a controversial mixed-use condominium, is being developed by Michigan corporation Crosswinds. City of Miami and CRA officials say that project will spur economic development into impoverished Overtown and bring jobs to the neighborhood. Critics, such as the activist organization Power U, believe the project is unneeded and will lead to the ouster of impoverished residents through gentrification.

The critics’ message has reached the ears of some county officials. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson have been outspoken about their plans to take back the three parcels from Miami’s CRA. A clause in the land’s deed allows the county to take control of a large chunk of the property since Crosswinds failed to start construction by Jan. 1. The city of Miami and the CRA have filed a lawsuit to prevent the county from re-establishing control.

Eleventh Circuit Court Judge Jose Rodriguez presided over two hearings on Jan. 17 and 18 that ultimately will determine the outcome of the suit, but he has not yet ruled.

The dispute between the county and the city of Miami is not only jeopardizing the construction of the Lyric’s addition, but also a larger project proposed for Block 36, the term county and Miami officials use to describe the three disputed parcels. Conceived by Gatehouse Companies, Lyric Place would offer between 200 and 220 affordable rental units, 55 and 75 workforce ownership units, 40,000 to 45,000 square feet of retail, an undetermined major grocery chain store and a 300-space parking garage.

If it weren’t for the county, the CRA would have had an opportunity to vote on Gatehouse Companies’ proposal, said the agency’s executive director, James Villacorta. But the county now holds the deed to the block and the CRA can’t negotiate bids for a piece of land it doesn’t own, he said.

Villacorta added that the Lyric expansion will not be simple. It will require a replatting of the parcel and the closing of public streets, “which will take a year,” he said.

There is another hurdle the Black Archives must clear: Miami’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board. When the designs for the addition were unveiled to the board Dec. 4, Kathleen Slesnick Kauffman, Miami’s historic preservation officer, told its members that the addition’s proposed design is not compatible with the surrounding area because it would tower above the old two-story building and “overwhelm the site.” Board members said they wanted a more decorative façade put on the rear addition and continued the item until Jan. 4.

During that meeting, the Black Archives hit a setback of its own. Ted Beacham, who represented the project, asked for another continuance. “We are not prepared,” he said, as he hastened out of that meeting.

Board Chair Timothy Barber recused himself during both meetings, citing a possible conflict of interest “due to my employment and affiliation with this project.” Barber currently works for the Black Archives as a historian, archivist and curator.

The preservation board will rule on the design of the Lyric Theater expansion on Feb. 5, but founder Dorothy Jenkins Fields said she was surprised to hear of the new hurdle. The changes could add millions to the cost of the project and would have to be raised, Fields said.

“We don’t have any dedicated income,” Fields said. The theater’s operating costs are partly funded by rental of the facilities, reinforcing the need for some of the elements the addition will house. “Most theaters can’t support themselves.”

Fields hopes to hash out the designs with the preservation board. “The architect purposely made the building nondescript so it would not take away from the design of the [original] building,” she said.

Walking through the most recently constructed $5 million northern portion of the project to the historic part of the theater, Fields pointed out the intricate woodwork on the seats as the house lights came up. The theater restoration phase carried a $1.5 million price tag.

Jenkins showed off the scale model of what the finished project will look like, pointing out piano key-shaped stones that will bear the names of benefactors and form a path around the building.

In the meantime, Fields said her organization will wait out the land dispute while communicating with the city’s historic preservation staff. She is inviting board members to visit the theater and see the expansion plans for themselves.

“We’d love to host them at the theater,” Fields said, standing next to the little model in its big glass case. “They can have their next meeting here.”

Comments? E-mail angie@miamisunpost.com.