Movie theater stalled

The piece of the downtown puzzle considered “crucial” to revitalization by Supervisor Sean Walter still isn’t falling into place.

“Ron Parr has the contracts in hand,” to buy the old Woolworth building from Apollo, Walter said in an interview this week. Parr plans to build a 35,000-square-foot multiscreen movie theater on the site, but the developer won’t sign the contract until he inks a deal with a movie theater tenant, Walter said.

The supervisor said he’s been in talks with two movie theater chains for months, trying to woo them to downtown Riverhead.

A representative of Regal Cinemas, a national movie theater chain, is visiting Riverhead in early May at Walter’s invitation, he said.

“I told him I would personally pay for his plane ticket and hotel room,” Walter said.

A call to Regal Entertainment Group’s communications office was not returned.

Clearview Cinemas, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems, first expressed an interest in Riverhead last April, Walter said.

Beth Simpson Crimmins, a spokesperson for Clearview Cinemas, declined comment on whether the company is interested in opening a movie theater in downtown Riverhead.

“I’ve told both movie companies they will never, ever get zoning on Route 58,” Walter said. “The movie theater must go downtown,” he said.

That notion — banning movie houses on Route 58 in favor of Main Street — grew out of the 2004 master plan. After its adoption, Riverhead made changes to its zoning ordinance that removed movie theaters as a permitted use anywhere but in the Downtown Center zone, which was limited to Main Street. In 2005, the town expanded that slightly to include the zoning use district that covers Railroad Avenue, where a developer had floated plans for a multiplex theater.

Then-councilman Ed Densieski objected to eliminating the use on Route 58. He said by banning movie theaters on Route 58 the town might effectively be banning them altogether.

“I’d prefer to see it downtown myself,” Densieski said in an interview this week. He currently serves as vice president of the Riverhead Business Improvement District Management Association, a group whose mission is to promote downtown business. “But I did a lot of research back then, and I was told in no uncerain terms that wouldn’t happen. I just thought we should have kept our options open.”

Densieski said it’s not clear whether a movie theater would come to Route 58 either.

“The movie theater industry is really not doing well,” he said. “For a movie theater to make it, I think it has to be more like an iMax.”

Indeed prior to banning movie theaters on Route 58, the Town Board had approved special permits for proposed movie theaters five times for Route 58 locations, but nothing happened.

One of those approvals was for a proposed Regal Cinemas multiplex theater at the Riverhead Centre shopping center. But when Regal filed for bankruptcy in 2001, the shopping center developer replaced the movie theater with additional retail space. (Regal emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy as Regal Entertainment Group and since 2002 has operated Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres and Edwards Theatres.)

Parr’s interest in building a downtown movie theater dates back to at least 2004, when he told town officials he wanted to build an 11-screen multiplex on the site of the old Rimland building, which had been purchased by Swezey’s Department Stores before the Main Street stalwart decided to cease operations. As it turned out, that site was selected by Suffolk County for the community college’s culinary arts school and the Parr Organization chosen to build the new facility.

But Parr’s hope of building a downtown movie theater lived on. He submitted a proposal for the downtown “master developer” deal which was won by Apollo Real Estate Advisors. Apollo bought the old Woolworth building from downtown landlord Shelly Gordon’s Riverhead Enterprises group in 2006 for $4.3 million. Apollo’s grand plans for Main Street went down the tubes with the economic meltdown of 2007, and the town subsequently canceled the master developer agreement. Parr began negotiating with Apollo last year to buy the old Woolworth building and, according to Walter, has reached a deal.

But will a movie theater company be willing to locate downtown?

“I told them we would take care of their parking needs,” Walter said. The site is in the parking district and that must be done, he said. He’d like to use the site of the former fire house on Second Street for parking.

“We are also researching every possible grant opportunity for bringing a theater downtown,” in the hopes of making Main Street more attractive to a movie theater chain, Walter said.

A movie theater is the anchor Main Street needs to ensure its new and expanding  restaurant “district” will flourish, Walter said. He said he’s skeptical about the ability of downtown residential uses in and of themselves to do the trick for downtown revitalization.

“Do people really want to live above stores on Main Street,” Walter asked. “Ron Parr isn’t convinced and I’m not so sure either.”

So while developers like the Albanese Group are exploring the possibility of mixed use development — apartments above first-floor retail — on the south side of Main Street — the developers have been negotiating a possible purchase with landowner Shelly Gordon — Walter said he believes downtown revitalization’s best bet remains on a multiscreen movie cinema.

“The rest will follow,” he said.