Tivoli was built in 1924. Horning, who grew up in Brightwood just north of Columbia Heights, remembers seeing films at the Tivoli theater decades ago, when the 14th Street corridor was known as a place where people went to shop, eat or see movies. That all changed after the 1968 riots, when more than 300 businesses and 1,000 housing units were burned or ransacked in the area along 14th Street between Florida Avenue and Spring Road NW, said Robert L. Moore, president of the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights, a nonprofit group that promotes development in the area.
The theater was not damaged during the riots, but as the neighborhood deteriorated, business dwindled. In 1976, the theater was closed and boarded up.
At top, a new Giant Food will connect to the theater. Above, visitors look at a site on Monroe Street, just behind the Tivoli, where duplex condos are planned.
(Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)
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Some residents of Columbia Heights wanted to tear down the building, while the District wanted to save it, said Leroy Hubbard, 58, who has lived in Columbia Heights for 50 years. Hubbard supported efforts to fix up the theater but said the intense disputes prevented progress. "People stopped speaking to neighbors for years," Hubbard said. "There were hearings and hearings and more hearings, but there was no decision on whether to take it down."
In the early 1980s, the District awarded development rights to Herbert H. Haft, the founder of Dart Drug and Crown Books. Haft talked of tearing down the Tivoli to put a grocery store on the property. But the project never got off the ground.
"The neighborhood wasn't mature enough," for a mixed-use project, said Roodberg, who used to work for Haft. Haft died Sept. 1.
In 1998, the District terminated its deal with Haft and asked for new bids. Three developers, including Horning, Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland; and New York developer Grid Properties Inc. made proposals.
Horning, who started his development company in 1958 with his brother, Larry, thought renovating the theater would spark a revival in Columbia Heights. And he saw the project as the capstone of a career spent mainly building apartment buildings in the region.
Horning's bid was selected in 1999. Soon D.C. officials questioned how the deal was awarded and tried to revoke the agreement. But after 18 months, the D.C. officials agreed to let Horning develop the project and lease the land from the city in a 99-year deal.
As Horning's fight with the city was subsiding, his dispute with the "Save the Tivoli" neighborhood group was intensifying. The group was upset over Horning's plans to gut much of the building's interior to put a grocery store there. They had the theater designated as a historic building and in 2001 filed a lawsuit to preserve the stucco walls, the intricate plaster domes of the old theater stage and other details.
Horning argued that preserving the interior would cost him significantly, forcing him to raise rents to prohibitive levels. But with little evidence that the neighborhood group would back off, Horning came up with a new plan. He decided to chop up the interior, creating a mix of offices, retail and theater. That would allow him to leave more of the inside intact.
