The Urban Redevelopment Authority is close to finishing a review of its A-list of proposals for development of the North Side's Federal Street-North Avenue corridor.

Two of five proposals would focus on the Garden Theater as part of a larger vision for the block, and one covets only the theater, the last nickelodeon-style specimen in the city with an intact interior and one of the last in the country.

The theater is considered by some to be the linchpin in the success of the corridor. Craig Dunham, a principal at the Rubinoff Co., said he would want to get the theater up and running first, "as the anchor" to generate leverage for other buildings.

The URA requested proposals in the spring for a dozen blighted properties. Kyra Straussman, the URA's director of real estate, said the board will be told of a decision at its meeting next month.

A final feasibility review is ongoing, she said. Parties will be called in for a final round of questioning after that, she said.

A committee that included neighborhood residents has studied the plans and interviewed the developers in recent months.

"We were looking at proposals from experienced groups and people who just have a real heart for the neighborhood, and we were intrigued by both," Ms. Straussman said. Among them are large and small pieces, "and we're looking at ways to partner up some of these."

The authority is also helping former Steeler Franco Harris with his interest in transforming a small building on the north-east corner into a restaurant, she said.

A large building on North Avenue sustained extensive fire damage years ago and will likely be razed, she said. Otherwise, the plan has been to save the structures. Most date to the 19th century.

The Garden was built in 1915 with terra cotta detailing and a copper canopy, which has not survived. It was a first-run movie house before it became a porn theater in 1972. The URA bought and closed it in February amid news that a new plan for housing and a Carnegie Library branch would be coming in the future to Federal.

Rebecca Davidson-Wagner, project development specialist for the URA, said all 12 buildings were addressed in the proposals, some as part of large proposals, a few as individual, small ventures.

Mr. Dunham said a multi-building plan is "extraordinary challenging. The buildings are in terrible shape and the neighborhood is definitely transitional. It's going to require lots of capital investment just to get to the point where they are useful."

For this reason, one suitor may seem a long shot, but his vision got the URA neighborhood committee's nod for consideration.

Aaron Stubna, a barber from Bellevue who has studied filmmaking, seeks only the theater. He is trying to form a board to run a nonprofit 350-seat movie theater and live-music venue that would occupy most of the main floor. An art gallery would be the other piece, and a wine bar would fill one of two small storefronts within the building.

"I'm a 36-year-old with a fresh idea," said Mr. Stubna, who estimated needing $1.2 million to develop the Garden, adding, "My partner is doing the construction at cost."

He foresees combining some movie nights with a pre-movie concert in the theater.

"A ton of people with talent are dying for stage time," he said. "It would be maybe 15 minutes before a 7:30 movie."

The movie theater in his plan also would serve as an after-school training venue for neighborhood children to learn how to make movies.

The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation wants to guide its art-related vision of the entire block, said its president, Arthur Ziegler.

"We feel the entire block [that includes the Garden] should be one project," he said. "We see it as a place for film, lectures and other events, with some of the overflow from the Hazlett [Theater].

"We would like to unite the theater and the Masonic Hall in some synergistic way."

Mr. Dunham, who said he had no price tag yet, put together an all-star team that includes loft developer Eve Picker; Sara Radelet, director of the New Hazlett Theater; Charlie Humphrey, the director of Pittsburgh Filmmakers; architect Rob Pfaffmann and Ernie Sota, a developer of green buildings.

"We'd like to have people working there, living there, singing and dancing and showing movies there," Mr. Dunham said of the Garden. "Performance venues are becoming transformative elements within communities.

"We want to do the whole block. We think it has a synergy that would allow for a higher level investment. But not today."