Probably the most surprising aspect of Center City's
Forum Theater, the notorious porn cinema that has resided at the corner of 22nd and Market streets since the mid-1970s, is that it still exists. Thanks in large part to the widespread availability of internet porn, blue movie houses across the county have been closing their doors at a rapid clip over the past decade.
And yet the Forum has lately found itself the subject of local
media attention for a different reason altogether: It's in the midst of an expansion project that would add live nude dancers and private booths to a new second floor. And while that project was approved by the city's
Zoning Board of Adjustment last year, the situation got a bit more complicated when a group known as the Center City Residents Association chose to appeal the decision to the Commonwealth Court earlier this month.
According to Ronald Patterson, however, an attorney for the Forum's owners (which include the controversial Anthony Trombetta), the situation is actually much simpler--and nowhere near as malicious--as the CCRA seems to assume. According to Patterson, the Forum's owners, who also operate Les Girls, a neighboring strip club at 2132 Market Street, simply want to relocate that club's operations into the Forum. To accommodate Les Girls, the Forum would transform what is currently a mezzanine level into a proper second floor, with no changes to the building's exterior. Les Girls could then become a mixed-use development, or possibly sold.
"I didn't really want to be the guy who would put a (new) adult use into the neighborhood," says Patterson. "But this is a good thing, I think, going from two (adult uses) to one."
Now that the ZBA's decision has been appealed, "I guess we just wait for two or three months until they make a decision," Patterson says.
Source: Ronald Patterson,
Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP Writer: Dan Eldridge
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