Waltham’s shuttered Embassy cinema off Moody Street has a new owner and a new identity. Smaranda Albeck, founder of Boston Rhythmic, bought the roughly 20,000-square-foot, six-screen theater at 16 Pine St. in March 2023 and renamed it the Embassy Performing Arts Center. Of the building’s six movie auditoriums, only two still show films; the other four now host rhythmic gymnastics, dance, theater, and aerial classes for a school serving more than 750 students.
The split is not incidental. By keeping two auditoriums open to the public, Albeck avoided applying for a brand-new special permit and instead modified the old cinema permit, a structure her broker calls a “second life” for the building. The renovation finished in 2024, and the Embassy Performing Arts Center now runs films, classes, chess clubs, and post-screening panels under one roof.
From Landmark to Boston Rhythmic
Smaranda Albeck, the founder of Boston Rhythmic, closed on the shuttered Embassy cinema in mid-March 2023, paying $4.5 million for the two-story, roughly 20,000-square-foot building at 16 Pine St. Coverage of the Embassy’s $4.5 million sale identified the seller as KPR Centers. The deal was brokered on the buyer side by Mike Jezienicki of Boston Realty Advisors; Nicholas Herz of the same firm arranged financing through HarborOne and BayColony, the latter channeled through the Small Business Administration.
Albeck first learned the property was available in 2021, through her broker. The Landmark cinema chain had reopened the Embassy and a sister property near Kendall Square in Cambridge after state officials shuttered movie theaters during the early pandemic, but foot traffic never bounced back in Waltham. Landmark closed the Waltham location in September 2022. By then Albeck had been searching for a flagship home for years, leasing space in Watertown and Westborough and running satellite classes at two Newton schools in the meantime.
Her school already serves more than 750 students across Watertown, Westborough, and the Newton satellite classes, and she bills the operation as the largest rhythmic gymnastics school on the East Coast. The Pine Street site is staffed in part by an existing team of more than 35 full- and part-time workers, with a cohort of high-school-age “junior coaches” added in. The Pine Street building sits next to a city parking garage with more than 200 spaces, a layout the school describes as ideal for a competition venue pulling families from across the region. The exterior will keep its 1998 facade; Albeck plans to swap the marquee sign only.
The Special Permit That Opened the Door
The reason two auditoriums still show movies is city paperwork as much as programming. In June 2022, the Waltham Planning Board approved operating a performing arts center on the site. That approval let Albeck modify the existing cinema special permit to add performing-arts uses, sidestepping the more extended review a wholly new permit would trigger. The two retained screens seat 160 and 120 patrons. The arrangement lets her run gymnastics classes during the day, screen films at night, and skip a process local planners would otherwise have to relitigate.
What’s compelling for me is that it is a property that has a second life. While people might lament the fact that it’s no longer Landmark Cinemas, I think it’s going to be something more significant.
Jezienicki, Albeck’s broker, framed the deal in adaptive-reuse terms. KPR Centers, the New York-based owner of industrial and retail properties that sold the building, did not appear in the closing coverage. The interior of the 16 Pine St. site was designed by Ed Forte, an Arlington architect, working from an empty-auditorium floor plan. Per the Boston Rhythmic announcement covered by the Pine Street real estate trade recording, construction was scheduled to begin a month after the closing.
Four Auditoriums, Reinvented
The Embassy Performing Arts Center opened to the Waltham community in 2024, with the school now running the four converted auditoriums as multiuse gymnastics halls. The sloped cinema floors are gone. Flat, carpeted practice surfaces replaced them, dressed with pink and purple wall paneling and floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Tall drapes of colorful rope hang from one ceiling for the school’s aerial acrobatics program.
The renovation gave the coaching staff something they never had in Watertown: physical separation between programs. Theater manager Colin Maher, who also teaches a class on tricking (a martial arts-style discipline built around flips and twists), put it plainly.
Every coach has their own space.
The school’s competitive travel team uses the converted halls as a practice space, and that team has competed at state, regional, and national tournaments across the country, according to a December 2024 Waltham Times feature on the conversion.
Movies are not an afterthought. The two surviving auditoriums have continued to operate under the dual purpose the special permit allows. On a Thursday evening captured by the Waltham Times, the postapocalyptic thriller “Homestead” rumbled in one theater while gymnasts tumbled in the converted halls across the lobby. In October 2024 the center hosted a women’s health and wellness panel after a screening of the documentary “The M Factor: Shredding the Silence on Menopause,” and in February director David Abel held a Q&A after a showing of his documentary “In the Whale.” Programming that isn’t film or gymnastics rounds out the calendar.
- Aerial acrobatics classes run from ropes installed in one of the four converted screening rooms.
- Rhythmic gymnastics, dance, and tricking classes for the school’s competitive travel team and beginner programs.
- Continued film programming in the two retained auditoriums, plus post-screening discussion panels.
- A chess club and free exercise classes for seniors, run out of the lobby.
- Special events including the October 2024 women’s health panel and the February Q&A with director David Abel.
Damage and a Six-Month Dig
The bones of the building needed work before any studio could open. A faulty roof had let water seep through the structure during the months the theater sat vacant. Contractors then had to dig into the building’s floor to create the higher ceilings the aerial arts program requires, and that excavation alone took six months. To stop recurring leaks, crews installed a waterproof membrane under the foundation before pouring new concrete floors.
The water problem came in part from outside. Pine Street slopes downward toward the theater, and runoff during rainstorms pooled against the foundation before the renovation. Albeck also converted an emergency exit at the back of the building into a full-time entrance for the gymnasts. The lobby itself will stay intact. The interior work, designed by Ed Forte, also added a separate student entrance so the cinema crowd and the school crowd don’t collide.
The Vision for Moody Street
Albeck has been explicit about what success looks like in the lower Moody Street corridor. With movies, classes, and special-event rentals all running under one roof, the school now expects the front-of-house to hum from before the school day ends to well after dinner.
“Basically, we’re expanding the scope of the building while retaining what they had,” Albeck said at the closing. “It will be very beautiful for the community to have all these other activities for children, adults, and seniors.” The school has also expanded off-site. A mobile program called Rhythmic on Wheels already visits preschools and after-school programs in Brookline, Newton, and Watertown. The Pine Street flagship is meant to anchor all of it, not replace the satellites.
Land sits across the street, including senior housing, and Albeck has flagged morning programming for older residents as one early expansion. The new center also keeps a public face beyond the gymnasts: two screens of movies, a chess club, and free exercise classes for seniors. The school says it has converted the Embassy into a community hub, with Albeck’s own vision that “this place is going to buzz from like 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. every day.”
By the numbers:
- $4.5 million: March 2023 purchase price for the 16 Pine St. building.
- 4 of 6: auditoriums converted from movie screens to gymnastics studios.
- 750+: students enrolled across Boston Rhythmic’s three locations.
- 35+: full- and part-time staff, plus high-school-age junior coaches.
- 20,000+ sq ft: total area of the two-story Pine Street building.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Boston Rhythmic?
Boston Rhythmic is the sister company of Rhythmic Dreams, the nonprofit Smaranda Maria Albeck founded in 2002. Boston Rhythmic Watertown opened in 2015 and Boston Rhythmic Westborough opened in 2017, and the new Pine Street site serves as the flagship location. The school describes itself as the largest rhythmic gymnastics school on the East Coast.
Who sold the Embassy building?
KPR Centers, an owner of industrial and retail properties based in New York, sold 16 Pine St. for $4.5 million in March 2023. Boston Realty Advisors’ Mike Jezienicki represented the buyer; Nicholas Herz of the same firm arranged financing through HarborOne and BayColony, the latter channeled through the Small Business Administration.
Why does the Embassy still show movies?
Albeck kept two of the six original auditoriums open, with seating for 160 and 120 patrons, so the city’s existing cinema special permit could be modified to allow performing-arts uses. That structure sidestepped the more extended review a brand-new special permit would trigger. The planning board approved the conversion in June 2022.
What’s running at the Embassy Performing Arts Center?
The four converted auditoriums host rhythmic gymnastics, dance, theater, and aerial acrobatics classes. The two remaining auditoriums screen films. The lobby and back-of-house space run a chess club and free exercise classes for seniors, and the center has hosted post-screening events including a women’s health panel in October 2024 and a Q&A with director David Abel in February.
How many people does the Waltham Embassy school serve?
Boston Rhythmic enrolls more than 750 students across its Watertown, Westborough, and Pine Street locations, with about 500 families served in Watertown alone. The Pine Street site is staffed by more than 35 full- and part-time workers, with high-school-age “junior coaches” pulled from the wider program.
