UNIDOS Executive Summary

RKO Hamilton Theater

Before we get into the nitty gritty of our goals and our vision that we’re going to discuss with you today, we first want to introduce you to a place. Pictured below is the beautiful RKO Hamilton Theater located at 3560 Broadway in Hamilton Heights, Harlem.

It was constructed in 1912 as a vaudeville house by Thomas W. Lamb during the New York city theater boom. It is considered one of his most significant pre-WWI theaters in New York.

On opening night, January 23 1913, there were performances by the theater's resident orchestra, a series of short dramas, several comedians, an acrobatic act, and short motion pictures. In time, the new leaseholders, Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) Radio Pictures, eliminated vaudeville from the Hamilton, installed a sound system, and converted it to one of the first movie theaters to show "talking pictures" in New York City. The theater screened its last movie in 1958.

Since then, its uses varied widely from a sports arena to a discotheque to an evangelical church until finally, today where it sits vacant and in disrepair.

A shell and a hauntingly beautiful reminder of the granger and beauty that used to light up the street. The marvelous interior which once seated 1,857 is now forgotten and in utter disrepair.

We’ve lived a few blocks away from the Hamilton theater for the last 5 or so years and every time we pass by it, we look up at it hopefully. It’s beauty hasn’t been lost to the GAPs and Whole Foods that have taken over so many of New York’s most beautiful architectural marvels that unless special attention is given by the viewer are overlooked as busy passerby’s paruse the shops and restaurants that surround them. Reopening the Hamilton Theater as a studio and community gathering spot has been our dream since we first set eyes upon it and with your help we can open it’s doors and breath new life into the community for which this structure belongs.

Here’s what we can offer the Hamilton Heights neighborhood and greater NYC area:

UNIDOS is a community-based ecosystem composed of breathtaking studio spaces, full-service production, equipment rental, and a center for arts and dramatic performance focused on empowering both current and future generations of artists and creatives.

We are a studio space located in the heart of Harlem that offers professional grade equipment rentals and a full service team of photographers, directors, cinematographers, prop stylist, and retouchers, enabling the creative expression of its clients. Beyond rental of the space itself, the studios´ services will include brand strategy, content creation, equipment rental, digital capture, production and post-production. This is our background. This is the wheelhouse of our experience and where our professional capabilities lie. But there are plenty of photo studios in New York. We don’t need more of the same and to stop here would fall short of offering us to express the needs we have as individuals to help our community and people like us who deserve more, who need more.

In addition, our staff will consist of trainees as part of a reentry program for ex-offenders who are interested in the entertainment industry. One of the unique positions we have in the creative industry is that no one asks you about your education and background, I wish I’d known this before I racked up all the student loan debt but alas here we are. What matters in this industry is word of mouth. You prove yourself through your hard work and skill and you grow as a result of your experiences. We want to offer a mentorship program where we can help establish the necessary on set skills and education that you otherwise have to get through internships at other studios or by working for free as assistants for other photographers ( I recommend searching for reviews from ex-interns on just how degrading, stressful, and dehumanizing these experiences are or else we’d be happy to share our own experiences with both these avenues with you). We want to pay fair wages for hard work and help empower and embolden our staff to move on from our program to whatever role they’d like to pursue from the experiences they’ve gained through our program. We’d also like to offer sponsorships to encourage international creatives who are looking for a safe space to be able to practice their art and learn and grow within our space as well. This will be our staff, a mix of creative professionals and hard working aspiring creatives learning from each other and getting a chance to exist in a world that for too long has been limited in its openness to who gets to be successful and who gets to be a part of the process. The second and third floors will serve as sound proof photo/video studios as well as a creative team suite and equipment room. But beyond the closed door of a studio set, the walls of this theater will be open to everyone offering year round art programs and inviting the community to participate and become a part of its reinvigoration. The first floor will be a center for arts and dramatic performance that will host free artist lectures, classes, theater productions, master classes, film screenings, projections, viewings for local community artworks, art critiques and portfolio reviews, among other things. We will have computer stations with internet access and free snacks so that we can offer kids in the neighborhood a safe place to go after school.

Our goal is to bring the wealth uptown and make a new international hub for all spectrums of editorial and commercial clients in NY by offering a full service creative agency and production studio powered by the already saturated creative talent already thriving in the community. But rather than focusing on elitism and exclusion, we encourage inclusion and welcomeness for all.

We know this is a tall order, we know this is a big task. We know this is an expensive endeavor. But that’s why it’s important and worth it. If we continue to let the few control the many, we will continue to have communities stripped of their value awhile the select few roll the dice. Which is why we’ve come to you looking for your help to get things started. You, through talent and perseverance, have managed secure economic stability that might allow you to help us take this project on and make it happen. The only way to remove greed and self interest from the formula is to allow the community to build this thing together. To do that, we need your financial contribution to get things started. 

Based on our initial projections, even when taking into account worst case scenario for first year growth, we anticipate EOY sales for the first year of business to be equal to or greater than $116K while expenses/costs are expected to be around $125K which gives us a total net profit of ~$9K. We expect this figure to more than double in the following year with the removal of the initial startup costs we will face in the first year. 

Parallel to that, we will begin renovating the space to get it client facing. We need to build a website, social media profile, and phone/email account so we can begin getting the word out to prospective clients. We need to begin investing in equipment/insurance to build out our comprehensive offering. 

What follows is a detailed layout of the above mentioned opportunity, strategy, and business structure.