NYC's Quad Cinema may be evicted due to noise complaints
Long-running Village moviehouse institution Quad Cinema, which opened in 1972, was the first-ever multi-screen cinema in NYC and just got a major renovation, is facing eviction due to noise complaints. The New York Post reports:
Soon after the Quad reopened in April 2017 following a massive, two-year renovation that included “extensive soundproofing,” it received complaints that the soundtracks of its films were bleeding into apartments above, according to a Friday filing in Manhattan Supreme Court.
In response, the indie theater stopped using its subwoofers and turned down the default volume of its flicks to a “Level 4” out of 10, described in the filing as “a very reasonable, if not too soft, sound level.”
The noise complaints almost entirely petered out after the compromise, but one tenant kept up the crusade for quiet, according to the suit, which was first reported by The Real Deal.
Asad Rahman, who lives on the second floor directly above two of the theater’s four screens, kept grousing to Quad management well into 2018, according to court papers.
When the theater’s manager went into Rahman’s apartment to check out the noise from his perspective, she could faintly hear a trailer from one theater.
The Quad turned down the sound even further, but Rahman still wasn’t satisfied.
According to the Quad, Rahman has called in complaints even when the theater wasn’t showing a movie. “I think the question is whether Quad will abide by their lease,” Anthony Dreyer, vice president of the building’s co-op board, told The Post. “My understanding is they’ve at least started the process” of remedying the issues.
