David M. Pincus, chairman of the theater task force for Community Board 4, which represents the garment district, is also managing director of the WorkShop Theater Company. He said his theater and two others in the same building, at 312 West 36th Street near Eighth Avenue, were struggling to pay their rents, which had tripled over the last decade.

While theaters and arts organizations have been promoting the area as an arts district with a festival each October for the last five years, that may not be enough. Mr. Pincus is pushing a Manhattan-wide property tax abatement for landlords who lease to performing arts tenants.

[Community Board 4's Theater Task Force, Chaired by WorkShop Managing Director, David M. Pincus, helped craft a proposal which resulted in] an initiative to include 16,000 square feet of space for small theaters in the West Side railyards project, from 28th to 42nd Streets, which includes a western sliver of the garment district.

"Still, that’s 10 or more years down the line," Mr. Pincus said, "and many theaters are on the chopping block right now."