Berger World

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Berger and his team started courting Graham last summer, after a nonprofit group headed by former Auditorium Theatre Council director Jan Kallish expressed interest in the building. He says he has no immediate plans to raise rents, which range from $300 to $800 for studios. He thinks he can reopen the building’s two theaters, the Playhouse and the Studebaker, closed since their last incarnation as the Fine Arts movie house, and says he’s working on a plan that could include educational use. And he wants to make the Fine Arts the hub of an empire he’d previously envisioned at the Flat Iron, with a 2,000-square-foot recording studio where he’ll launch something called Flat Iron Records and a gallery where streaming video will allow artists at both buildings to display their work. In the expansive universe of Bergervision, he says, “We’re in the entertainment business. It will be spontaneous, extemporaneous, and planned. Our motto is ‘Round the clock, round the world.’”

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