Long Beach movie theater to reopen

Six weeks after shutting down without explanation, Long Beach's only movie theater will reopen on Friday, the owner said Monday.

Residents of the seaside city wanting to see the latest flicks nearby have had to travel to Rockville Centre, Valley Stream, Lynbrook or Baldwin since late April when Long Beach Cinemas closed. And its reopening is somewhat unusual given the demise of others in Oceanside, Port Washington and Rockville Centre in recent years.

Executives at Philips International, owner of the four-screen cinema, blamed the shutdown on a purchase offer from an undisclosed retailing chain for the building on East Park Avenue at Long Beach Road. Negotiations had reached a point where it looked like the deal would be completed so movie showings were stopped, they said.

However, Philips reversed course amid an "outcry" from residents after the theater closing was reported by Newsday and others.

"We were very surprised by the reaction from the community," said Seth Pilevsky, managing director of Philips, the Manhattan-based owner of more than 150 office, condominium and retail properties in seven states. "We were caught off guard . . . We got a lot of feedback."

Pilevsky, a Nassau County resident, said the deluge of telephone calls, email messages and neighbors' comments convinced him and his family to reopen the movie house.

They purchased the then-closed Lido Theater around 2000 and after an expansion project reopened it as Long Beach Cinemas.

Workers recently installed a 3-D projector and screen, repainted interior walls and repaired broken seats and fixtures. They plan to plug holes in the stucco exterior walls and decorative tile work before Friday's reopening.

"It's an upgrading and refreshing," Pilevsky said in an interview. "The closing down gave us the opportunity to really examine everything and to make sure everything was working properly."

In recognition of community support for the theater, he said, each ticket buyer on Friday will receive a gift certificate for free admission to one movie during the year ending June 10, 2012.

Pilevsky also refuted rumors that the cinema had lost money. "If the movie theater wasn't profitable before we closed it, we wouldn't even have thought about reopening . . . This was simply a case of us receiving an unsolicited offer for the building from a large, creditworthy retailer."

Local business owners and residents hailed the cinema's rebirth, noting Long Beach once had multiple movie palaces, including several on the boardwalk.

"This will be good for our restaurants and the community," said Michael J. Kerr, president of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. "People were really upset . . . They want a theater in town and what happened was so abrupt."