BY GABE HERMAN | The Lower East Side now officially has a mainstream movie theater.
A 14-screen Regal theater opened on Sat., April 6, at 129 Delancey St., at Norfolk St. The theater has reserved seating and more than 1,200 total seats, all of which are luxury recliners with footrests.
The theater is in The Essex, a 26-story, mixed-use building that will also be home to the Essex Street Market and The Market Line, that latter which will be a bazaar-like marketplace. The markets will open this spring and feature nearly 150 vendors combined. The building also has 98 residences, which became available at the beginning of this year.
The building is part of Essex Crossing’s nine-site, 2-million-square-foot mixed-use development on the Lower East Side.
The neighborhood has long been without a mainstream cinema. And even its indie theaters have been dwindling, with Sunshine Cinema on E. Houston St. closing early last year. That former movie theater is set to be replaced by a nine-story office and retail building.
“When we began planning Essex Crossing, a movie theater was high on Lower East Side residents’ list of needed community resources,” said Andrew Katz, partner at Delancey Street Associates and principal at Prusik Group, a developer of Essex Crossing. “Regal will provide a dynamic new offering to the neighborhood and add to Essex Crossing’s wider amenities, including the adjacent Essex Street Market and Market Line.”
Essex Crossing also just received an award on April 4 from the Urban Land Institute New York, for “Excellence in Mixed-Use Development.”
