Moon’s Church Has Plan for Opera House

The Unification Church is planning to turn a former opera house into a cultural center in mid-town Manhattan, N.Y.

The church’s plans for the 3,000-seat Manhattan Center, which opened as the Manhattan Opera House in 1906, were announced at an arts conference sponsored by the church, which was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Manhattan Center is next to the former New Yorker Hotel, which serves as the church’s New York City headquarters. When it is opened as a cultural center it will be available for rent on a nonsectarian basis, said a spokesman for the Manhattan Opera House Foundation, which will operate the facility.