Who is that guy painting the marquee at the LaSalle Theater?

Lenny painting the marquee.

If you were at the August 14th, East 185th St. Block Watch Seven Year Anniversary Celebration, you would know who that guy was. Leonard “Lenny” Kedys was honored by the East 185th St. Block Watch with a certificate of appreciation for all of the hard work he has been putting in to the LaSalle Marquee. Lenny lives in the East 185th St Business District and has contributed many hours of work repainting the marquee.

“I am happy to help the LaSalle rise up to its former glory. I have been working with John Boksansky, Commercial Projects Coordinator for Northeast Shores, on color renderings as well as working with a special Sherwin Williams paint to improve the building. I’m about 65% done and I look forward to adding the details to complete the job. The marquee has twelve coats of paint on it which needed to be properly prepped. We followed through with the proper analysis to arrive at the closest possible original color palette for the new paint job,“ Lenny said.

“The Marquee work came as a blessing from Lenny and I am thankful for his efforts at the renewal of the theater working with Northeast Shores,” stated Councilman Polensek as he presented Lenny with a special proclamation from Cleveland City Council.

John Boksansky, Commercial Projects Coordinator for Northeast Shores, is pleased with the results thus far. “The LaSalle suffered from deferred maintenance for several decades. Of course, we show the building to all parties that are interested but its previous condition has kept serious partners from committing to renting the premises. The building appears obsolete, but it’s a diamond in the rough. Northeast Shores is confident that we will find the right chemistry of tenants to reuse the building. The Friends of the LaSalle group have begun to raise the bar on the condition of the LaSalle and hopefully with that, we will continue to attract the right tenant mix to return the building to its former glory.” Northeast Shores bought the building with the help of Village Capital in 2010 with hopes of rehabilitating it. The LaSalle Theater contains four commercial storefronts, five apartments as well as the Theater space contain over 7,000 square foot of unobstructed space.

The East 185th Block Watch also expressed their thanks to Joe Bruzas, Kris Bruzas, Mike Parks, Andrew Boksansky Jr. and Martin Brass for their work on painting the storefronts and clean-up of the theater interior, making the building more presentable to the neighborhood. The effort began when a few folks began to raise the curb appeal of the LaSalle. The Friends of the LaSalle meet periodically to provide sweat equity to the LaSalle working on the buildings needs as well as improving its appearance.

Many of the residents in attendance at the meeting expressed their pleasure with the improvements. Many of the block watch members would like to have more of their meetings at the LaSalle. One resident even commented about how they would like to see the theater restored and reopened for use by the community.

For more information about the friends of LaSalle please contact John Boksansky at Northeast Shores 216-481-7660 X23 or email at jboksansky@norhteastshores.org