Group floats running historic Ottawa cinema as co-op

A rare 1930s movie theatre in Ottawa is slated to close in November and a group of neighbourhood residents is hoping they will soon own it.

Former Green Party candidate David Chernushenko said he and several other people are interested in investing in the 1932 Mayfair Theatre building and are working on a business plan to keep the reels turning, perhaps as a co-operative.

"I'm a small business person. Everyone who's involved in this group at the moment is talking with their own money and their own time," he said.

He added that the plan needs to be creative.

"We have to offer something that people want to go with. A couple of Hollywood films, second-run, that we can all get on DVD is not what's going to get people to part with their hard-earned money."

City council is to vote in two weeks on whether to give heritage designation to the building, a Spanish Revival-style atmospheric theatre, which has an interior featuring ornate stone facades, faux balconies along the side walls, wrought ironwork, drapery and ornamental glass windows.

It is the last remaining cinema in Ottawa from before the Second World War and is also the last neighbourhood movie theatre in the city.

A group that is trying to start a neighbourhood repertory cinema in the Wellington West neighbourhood said it plans to hold off on its business venture while the Mayfair's future is sorted out.

"If it did just fade away, it'd take some wind out of our sails for West Wellington," said John Yemen, one member of the West Wellington group.