Acclaimed theater Soho Rep has walked away from its Walker Street theater. The press release explains it better than I could (although it leaves out the specific reason for the change; UPDATE: See James’s comment below):

In Spring 2016, Soho Rep began to plan for a capital campaign for a permanent home in New York City. The organization began to renegotiate an interim extension lease for their current venue, at 46 Walker St., to explore the option of purchasing the same venue where Soho Rep has staged its productions since 1991, and to examine other alternatives for its facility needs.

As part of that exploration, Soho Rep recently learned that the usage authorized by the City when the company first moved into the building 25 years ago does not align with the current operations in the space.

On September 28, Soho Rep’s Board of Directors met to review possible courses of actions, including altering the physical venue. They determined that the necessary renovations and administration would be cost and time-prohibitive.

With this new understanding, the Board of Directors and leadership staff have decided that it is no longer in the best interest of the company’s artists and audiences to renew their lease, which was set to expire in March 2017, and to close the theater at 46 Walker Street immediately.

The 2016-17 Soho Rep season will continue as scheduled, with performances of Daniel Alexander Jones’ Duat taking place, as planned, at The Connelly Theater, October 11–November 6. Soho Rep will announce a location for its Spring 2017 production, Richard Maxwell’s Samara, soon.

The New York Times says the issue with the city had to do with the scale of the productions. Also, “Three productions by other theater companies renting the Soho Rep space, including one that was scheduled to begin performances Thursday, will have to be relocated or canceled [….] Most immediately affected is an even smaller company, All for One Theater, which had a show, My Name Is Gideon, scheduled to begin performances at the 73-seat Soho Rep theater (at 46 Walker Street and sometimes called Walkerspace) on Thursday night. ‘The losses are incredible,’ said that company’s producing director, Nicholas Cotz.”