A group of neighbors in Cleveland Park and the surrounding area are campaigning to reopen the iconic Uptown Theater as a nonprofit venue that combines arthouse film screenings, dining, and space for events.

AMC Theatres or its predecessors operated the Uptown for decades until March 2020, when it didn’t renew the lease. Since then, rumors have swirled about the future of the theater, known for its Art Deco architecture and world premieres of blockbuster films, such as Jurassic Park in 1993 and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Everyone, it seems, has a fond memory from a first — or a last — date at the theater, which Warner Brothers opened in 1936. Emily Lenzner heard many of these stories while growing up on Macomb Street NW, a few blocks away, and even has a few of these memories herself. She now lives nearby in Woodley Park.

“The Uptown, for me, like so many people, was a part of my life,” Lenzner says. “It was part of my childhood, part of my adulthood.”

And the desire to retain at least the building as part of the neighborhood is strong. Residents and the Cleveland Park Historical Society last year collected over 15,000 signatures on a petition to designate the building as a historic landmark, which happened in May 2022. At one point, Landmark Theatres reportedly began talks to lease and reopen the theater. (Due to the historic landmark designation, the Uptown’s exterior can’t be touched, but the interior is up for grabs.)

But last fall, neighbors caught wind that the theater’s owners, the Pedas family, of Circle Management Company, might be entertaining offers to convert the space into something other than a theater.

It wouldn’t be unprecedented; the MacArthur Theater in the Palisades neighborhood, another historic treasure among cinephiles, also designed by architect John Jacob Zink, was converted into a CVS in 1997.

So Lenzner started rallying the community last October, meeting with neighborhood groups, local film festivals, and arts organizations. A broker connected Lenzner with restaurateurs Ben Heller and Max Zuckerman of Park View establishments Doubles, Sonny’s Pizza, and No Kisses, who were also interested in the Uptown building. The parties started talking and figuring out how they could combine both their objectives.

She hosted a presentation for about 70 residents on Feb. 22 at her mom’s house, where Heller and Zuckerman provided refreshments. She hosted a follow-up Zoom meeting for about 40 residents on March 6. Lenzner’s architect friends mocked up renderings for her pitch for the “Uptown Center for Arts & Film.”

A sample of what the group has in mind, at least to start, according to initial drawings:

• A 3,300-square-foot restaurant and bar in a grand lobby with café seating that would spill out onto the sidewalk, and murals on the interior walls celebrating D.C.’s entertainment history
• An updated 375-seat main theater with the original balcony and removable seating for private events or educational programs;
• A 50-seat screening room;
• A catering kitchen;
• And a 1,550-square-foot entertainment space on the second floor;

There’s even talk of a rooftop beer garden and a podcast studio in the old ground-floor ticket booth, part of the group’s “aspirational” plans, Lenzner says. Her plan includes keeping some of the original interior adornments, like the deco windows, sconces, and chandeliers, intact.

Lenzner has approached local film festivals and universities with hopes of building community partnerships, and wants to partner with companies to secure funding. (Lenzner runs communications for the Motion Picture Association, though she’s undertaking this effort as a private citizen and D.C. native, and MPA is not associated with it, she says.)

Zuckerman says the Uptown project would be separate from their Sonny’s/Doubles/No Kisses brands, and that he and Heller would tailor the food and beverage offerings to the needs of the arts center.

“We have different kinds of professional backgrounds and expertise, but a very similar desire for what we think the Uptown can be,” Zuckerman tells DCist/WAMU in reference to Lenzner’s concept. “And making sure it doesn’t become another one of these buildings that has the facade of a movie theater, but is actually a CVS inside.”

“There’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm and interest in having the Uptown return to the community and have it continue, in some way, as a movie theater,” Lenzner says. “There isn’t an arts center in this part of town, and we’re a block from the Metro. So the hope is that it would be attracting people from all over the city, the way it used to do almost 100 years ago.”

The neighbors’ main issue is that that the Pedas family could simply reject their proposal.

When it closed in 2020, Ted Pedas told the Washington Post that he “loved” the Uptown and would hate to see it discontinue its film services, but added that the popularity of streaming services had made it difficult to stay in the movie theater business.

The Pedas brothers, Ted and Jim, bought the theater in the 1970s and by the next decade, owned most big screens across the District. They transferred “much of their interest” in the company over to Ted’s children in recent years, the Post reported.

On Thursday, a person who answered the door at the address listed for the Pedases’ company, Circle Management, declined to comment.

But Lenzner’s effort is off to an impressive start. She’s already raised pledges of more than $460,000, a whopping figure for a campaign that launched at the meeting at her mother’s home just a few weeks ago. She’s received letters of support from a number of local organizations and leaders, including local advisory neighborhood commissioners, the Cleveland Park Historical Society, the D.C. Preservation League, the Art Deco Society of Washington, and a group called Cleveland Park Smart Growth that concerns itself with urbanist matters.

ANC commissioner Sauleh Siddiqui represents the single-member ANC district where the Uptown is located and launched his campaign the day the theater closed in 2020.

“Saving the Uptown was what spurred me to run and I consider that as a north star for every decision I make on the ANC,” Siddiqui told DCist/WAMU in an email. “The community is incredibly excited by the concept Emily brings us. She’s allowed us to not only dream, but provided a path to make it a reality.”

Tammy Gordon, another ANC commissioner, said in an email that Lenzner’s vision for the Uptown would provide a “much-needed third place” where neighbors could gather.

She added, “A thriving Uptown means a thriving Cleveland Park.”