EARLY RETIREMENT INVESTMENT

From Newark Star Ledger at nj.com:
Paramount Theater owner looks to restore venue's glory
By Mike Rispoli
April 09, 2009, 8:41PM
Mae West's stage revue set a box office record there in 1939. Years later, a young Jerry Lewis walked its aisles as an usher. It's marquee routinely illuminated downtown Newark.
Today, however, the old Paramount Theater on Market Street is a shell of its former self. It's been more than two decades since a film played there. The stage and mezzanine seating remain, but are obscured in cold darkness for want of electricity. The lobby houses small retailers on month-to-month leases. But Morris Shasho, who paid $2 million for the theater two years ago, wants to return the Paramount to its former glory.
John O'Boyle/The Star-Ledger
The facade of the old Paramount Theater on Market Street.
He's hoping the success of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium and the Prudential Center can help not only revitalize the Paramount but also the entire neighborhood.
"We've been talking to entertainment companies," said Shasho, who owns several other downtown buildings. "I've been waiting for what's happening in this area for 15, 20 years. This is about a 15-minute ride to Manhattan. You're going to see a lot of rehabilitated residential buildings in Newark."
Shasho admits it won't be easy.
The theater, he said, would need a significant rehabilitation to reopen as a single or multi-screen moviehouse or small concert venue. And he's not adverse to finding a name-brand retailer or chain to take the space if his financial patience wears thin.
Still, he knows the intrinsic value of what was once one of Newark's great moviehouses, which boasted nearly 2,000 seats and still retains its classic art deco facade, vertical Paramount sign and Newark marquee. Its mass of yellow and white light bulbs -- darkened with its 1986 closing -- is largely intact.
"Somebody wanted to buy the marquee," Shasho said. "I said, 'No.'"
John O'Boyle/The Star-Ledger
Morris Shasho, owner of the Paramount, stands in front of the old theater.
Stefan Pryor, Newark's deputy mayor for economic development and housing and a trustee of the Newark Downtown District, said the Market Street neighborhood is approaching a crossroads, perhaps best seen in plans for 100 new residential units nearby.
"Those residents will be walking the streets and looking for restaurants and retail even on non-event days and nights," Pryor said. "What's emerging is a new neighborhood."
Another property owner on the block, Martin Weber, is also betting on the spillover from the Prudential center to boost business. He has opened a Quiznos Subs and a Dunkin' Donuts to pump up national-brand commerce into a downtown block long a symbol of neglect.
Weber is also renovating the top floor of his Market Street building into apartments and marvels from its huge windows looking out at the Paramount marquee and the ornate cornice and gargoyles of the historic block.
"Built it and they will come. That's my motto."
But Martin Goldman, another Market Street property owner, isn't as optimistic.
"What spillover effect?" he said. "If you look from the arena to our place, it looks like the Bronx war zone."
The block from Broad to Mulberry needs to be re-developed en masse, he said. "Just like they did with the arena," Goldman said.
"We're paying taxes, $100,000 a year in taxes," he said of his largely vacant properties. "We have bites, but nothing. We were told miracles would happen if the arena was built, and I'm waiting for the miracles."
The abundance of venues in the region is also of concern when it comes to the future of the Paramount.
"As a concert promoter, if I was going to do a show in North Jersey, I'd pick the Wellmont (in Montclair), NJPAC or New Jersey Symphony Hall," said Carl Freed of New York-based Trevanna Entertainment. "I just don't see room for another one."
Freed, who lives in Montclair, is the son of the late character actor Bert Freed, whose roles included the police chief in 1953's "Invaders From Mars" and the hangman in 1968's "Hang 'Em High." His father's images very likely once flashed on the Paramount's big screen.
"Yes. They probably did," he said. "I would love a great new movie theater down there, but then again millions of dollars in investment for a movie theater?"

This house was once the seasonal home of Kurt & Ella Fischer who had owned
the Palm Crest Motel at 25th and Surf Ave. When their Son married and moved out, they constructed a 1 bedroom apartment in the northeast corner
of the 2nd floor, to add 1 extra unit for the Palm Crest although 3 blocks away.

Late in the 1979 season the Fischers recieved an offer to purchase
the Motel and sold, retiring from the daily rigors of managing a Motel.

With some of the proceed's from the sale, they constructed a two story
addition to their house in the rear, comprising a large 1 bedroom apartment on the 2nd floor and a smaller unit on the 1st sized like a basic motel room and it was named The Southgate. Originally, the property contained a small parking lot with an "honor" drop box to pay the parking fee.

In early 1981, Kurt suddenly passed away leaving Ella to carry on from
1981 until the middle of the 1983 season when she recieved an offer on the
property from a South Philadelphia Family who saw the place as an investment and shore quarters.

The Grimaliga Family owned the Southgate until 1989 until they sold to the Family who owned the Ivanhoe and Panoramic Motel's who then sold the property to Developer's that demolished this beautiful house and every other single dwelling on the North side of 22nd Ave for Condo's.

This scanned image is a pre demolition photo of what was once the Southgate. (Courtesy George F. Boyer Museun - Wildwood NJ)