Warwick Place Will Have Theater, High-End Restaurant

The attorney representing the Warwick Realty Trust told Planning Board members that Marblehead's new 38,000-square-foot office and retail building on Pleasant Street has nailed down two tenants - a high-end restaurant and a theater.

Local attorney Paul Lynch appeared before board members at Tuesday night to request that they look over and approve a plan calling for administrative changes to the building's first floor and courtyard area that he will soon take before the Zoning Board.

"The whole first floor of the main building is going to be a restaurant to the left and a theater to the right," Lynch said. "In the middle will be a mini-theater that can be used for corporate conferences."

Lynch presented plans to have the restaurant's front windows converted to slide "like those at ," so that patrons could enojy some fresh air while dining.

Though he was not at liberty to reveal the name of the new restaurant that is coming to town, Lynch did describe it as high-scale and said "it's not a drive-thru, let's put it that way."

The current plan calls for a 100-seat restaurant with a full bar and an outdoor eating area for 40, which will open out into a rear courtyard.

The upper-floors are designed for office space.

Attached to the restaurant, Lynch said, will be a 108-seat movie theater. A second 72-seat theater for conferences will be located in the middle of the lower-level space.

Board members unanimously endorsed the proposed changes to the building Tuesday night.

The building is owned by local businessman and philanthropist Eijk van Otterloo, was designed by archietct Ken Kao and is being built by the Salem-based Groom Construction Co.

to view a month-by-month timeline of progress at the site.

Do you think a new theater will thrive in Marblehead? What kind of restaurant would you like to see open on the first floor? Let us know in the comments section.