Prospects for a multiplex movie theater in Riverhead took a step forward Tuesday with the conclusion of public hearings on zoning code changes that would allow the use — again — in the Route 58 business districts.
Now all the town needs is a movie theater company willing to open a cinema there.
Regal Cinemas is in negotiations with the owner of the former Wal-Mart/King Kullen site on Route 58 but has not signed a lease yet, Riverhead attorney Charles Cuddy, who represents the property owner, said Tuesday after the hearings.
Cuddy said he is hopeful the lease will happen soon after the Town Board votes to approve the code changes. The vote could come as soon as the board's next regular meeting on June 21.
"These changes will assist in getting a movie theater to Route 58," Cuddy told the board from the podium.
The owner's attorney was the only person to speak during the hearings — despite the overwhelming public support for a new movie theater expressed on social media. The record was kept open for written comment until June 17. (Click here to submit a comment by email[1].)
Regal Cinemas inked a lease with the developer of Riverhead Centre almost 20 years ago. Protracted litigation brought against the town in an effort to block the development delayed the construction of the shopping center. In the interim, Regal, which had grown rapidly during the 1990s, filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and the Riverhead Centre lease never came to fruition. (Regal emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy as Regal Entertainment Group and since 2002 has operated Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres and Edwards Theatres.)
After the adoption of the 2004 master plan the Riverhead Town Board changed the zoning code to remove movie theaters as a permitted use anywhere but in the Downtown Center zone — limiting movie theaters to Main Street. In 2005, the town expanded that slightly to include the zoning use district that covers Railroad Avenue, where a prospective 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. He said his research indicated a movie theater chain would not locate downtown. "I just thought we should have kept our options open," Densieski told RiverheadLOCAL in a 2011 interview.
Between 1996 and 2004, when it banned movie theaters on Route 58, the Riverhead Town Board approved special permits for proposed movie theaters five times for locations along the commercial corridor — including Regal Cinemas at Riverhead Centre. The last one, a multiplex theater planned by Marquee Cinemas for the site where Costco Wholesale was eventually built, was approved in 2003. Marquee Cinemas' plans were scuttled when one of the principals in project ran into financial and legal troubles unrelated to the Riverhead project.
In 2004, developer Ron Parr 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 — which included a multi-screen movie house — went down the tubes with the economic meltdown of 2007, and the town subsequently canceled the master developer agreement.
Since his election in 2009, Supervisor Sean Walter worked to bring a movie theater downtown[2], believing it would spark revitalization. He said Regal Cinemas was interested in Riverhead and thought they could be convinced to locate downtown, where Parr was still interested in building a theater. But the theater chain, Walter acknowledges, was only willing to consider Route 58.
Last year, a representative of the the Manhattan-based holding company that controls the former Wal-Mart site through its subsidiary Riverhead PGC LLC, told RiverheadLOCAL[3] he was negotiating with "several" movie theater companies. Though Andrew Aberham, director of sales and leasing for the parent company, Philips International, would not disclose their identities, Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said at the time[4] that Aberham told town officials Regal Cinemas and Cinemark Theaters were both interested.
Riverhead PGC has since submitted plans[5] for the demolition of the eastern portion of the old Wal-Mart shopping center and the construction of a 10- or 12-screen multiplex cinema and two free-standing restaurant pads on the north side of the site, in what is now paved parking area along Route 58. The plans were approved by the Suffolk County Planning Commission last week, according to a report in the News-Review[6]. They are pending before the Riverhead Planning Board.
If adopted, the changes will allow a movie theater use by special permit of the town board on any site within the "Shopping Center" zoning use district. That district applies to many parcels on both sides of Route 58 east of Mill Road, including the Target/Sports Authority site — which is about to have a large vacancy with the closing of Sports Authority — TJMaxx Plaza, the Staples shopping center and most of the properties between Ostrander Avenue and Northville Turnpike. It does not apply to the Riverhead Centre site or any of the properties west of Mill Road, most of which are zoned "Destination Retail."
The code changes have been were first publicly discussed by the board[7] in November 2014, when Councilman John Dunleavy asked the board to consider them. Walter had resisted making the change until a property owner had a committed tenant, but it became clear that the code change would have to precede any lease commitment, as a real estate agent for the owner of the former Wal-Mart site told RiverheadLOCAL in an interview last year.
But a majority of board members Tuesday, including the supervisor, indicated they would support the amendments.
"A lot of people" want a movie theater in town, Councilman tim Hubbard said.
"It's the number one thing people ask now since we opened up a bunch of other stores they wanted," Walter said after Cuddy spoke.
"And this legislation has been pending since April of 2014 so I'm happy to see it on the calendar today," Giglio said from the dais Tuesday.
Dunleavy was absent Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
References
- ^ Click here to submit a comment by email (riverheadlocal.com)
- ^ a movie theater downtown (riverheadlocal.com)
- ^ told RiverheadLOCAL (riverheadlocal.com)
- ^ Jodi Giglio said at the time (riverheadlocal.com)
- ^ plans (riverheadlocal.com)
- ^ News-Review (riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com)
- ^ discussed by the board (riverheadlocal.com)
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