Long Beach Cinemas, city's only movie theater, to remain shut through winter
Exterior of the Long Beach Cinemas on E. Park Ave, shown in this Nov. 8, 2014 photo. Credit: Danielle Finkelstein
Long Beach's only movie theater -- closed more than two years since it was flooded and damaged by superstorm Sandy -- is to remain shuttered through the winter.
The billboard on the Long Beach Cinemas at 179 E. Park Ave. has read "Look 4 Grand Reopening Soon" for six months.
But the four-screen theater between Long Beach and Riverside boulevards will remain closed at least until the spring, city officials and the site developer said.
Manhattan developer Seth Pilevsky, managing director of Philips International, has said the theater would reopen after floodwaters gutted the movie house in 2012.
During the storm, the theater's roof collapsed and seawater pushed through the front and side doors.
The storm destroyed all four movie screens. All seats had to be removed and crews had to cut out wet drywall.
Pilevsky said recently that Sandy relief funds for rebuilding were delayed, and the theater is undergoing a makeover to modernize seating and screens to compete with big-chain cinemas.
"We are definitely going to reopen," Pilevsky said. "We went through what a lot of residents in Long Beach and New York dealt with. We've been waiting for proceeds from insurance to rebuild it the way it was before."
Reopening the theater was a condition of the city's settlement with Pilevsky and the iStar Corp., a Manhattan-based development firm, to develop the 6-acre Superblock site to build two towers of 520 luxury apartments.
Long Beach City Manager Jack Schnirman said the stipulation was a "good faith effort" to reopen the theater as soon as possible.
Schnirman said he's been in frequent contact with Pilevsky, who hoped to reopen last summer, but had to delay progress for further renovations.
"A movie theater is a good complement of a healthy, vibrant downtown," Schnirman said. "We want to see something good happen and have it happen shortly. But it's not happening as fast as anyone wants."
Since Sandy, the city has improvised while the theater was closed. The Long Beach Film Festival has shown movies on the beach and at a theater in Rockville Centre. Shortly after the storm, actor Billy Crystal held a special premiere of one of his films for Long Beach residents in Lynbrook.
Pilevsky wouldn't provide an estimated cost of renovations, but said he has paid most of it out of pocket. He said there was not a rush to reopen because the company was not dependent on the theater's revenue.
He said he doesn't think it makes sense for Long Beach to add a large corporate theater.
"We're very sympathetic to the residents of Long Beach. Although we love the theater, we're still a business," Pilevsky said. "We're committed to opening it better than ever."
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
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