Baltimore Selling Senator Theatre to Cusacks

There’s a new plot twist in the melodrama of the historic Senator Theatre.

The theater will be sold to its current operators, James "Buzz" Cusack and his daughter and business partner Kathleen Cusack, according to Joanne Logan, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Development Corp.

The Baltimore Business Journal first reported the quasi-governmental agency Baltimore Development Corp. is in the process of putting the deal together to be presented to the Board of Estimates. The development corporation contracts with the city to provide "economic development services," according to its website.

Logan confirmed to Patch via email that the corporation plans to take the transaction to the Board of Estimates by the end of September.

The city bought the theater in 2010 to prevent the building from being foreclosed on after former owner Tom Kiefaber fell behind on mortgage payments.

The city initially tried to sell the property, but said at the time it couldn’t find an offer it felt comfortable with, and eventually leased the building to the Cusacks.

The Cusacks, who also own The Charles Theater, are in the process of rehabbing the Senator, which has been closed since April, for an estimated $3 million.

The project has already received a state of $300,000, another $300,000 in , and a from the city for capital improvements.

Earlier this month, outside the theater on trespassing charges. Kiefaber, and the group Friends of the Senator, have been critical of the condition of the theater and the planned renovations.

Kiefaber also made headlines last year for during a Baltimore City Council meeting, being from the theater and then running unsuccessfully for

He has argued the city purposefully thwarted his attempts to turn the building over to a nonprofit to be run as a mixed-use entertainment venue so the city could turn it over to politically connected developers.

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