NEW YORK CITY—In public hearings for what is now the Market Line project on Manhattan's Lower East Side, residents called getting a movie theater a top priority, and now the project has signed the country's largest cinema operator as its first tenant. Regal Entertainment Group, which already operates three other multiscreen theaters across Manhattan, has signed on as anchor tenant with Delancey Street Associates to build what will be the largest such complex in Lower Manhattan. It will also be the first movie theater built in the borough since 2001.
“We're thrilled to introduce Regal Entertainment Group as the Market Line's first tenant,” says Rohan Mehra, principal of the Prusik Group, the firm responsible for the retail portions of the project. “We made a commitment to provide this community with a movie theatre and are proud to be fulfilling that commitment with the nation's pre-eminent theatre operator.”
Last year, the Bloomberg administration tapped the Delancey Street Associates team, a $1.1-billion joint venture of L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners and Taconic Investment Partners, to develop 1.65 million square feet of mixed-use space on mostly vacant land along Delancey and Essex streets on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The former Seward Park Extension Urban Renewal Area represents the largest undeveloped swath of city-owned land south of 96th Street, and has been in the works since 1965.
The development will be anchored by 1,000 multifamily units, half of which will be made permanently affordable for low-, moderate-, and middle-income households and senior citizens. It will also include 850,000 square feet of commercial space, along with an expanded new home for the Essex Street Market, an annex of the Andy Warhol Museum and 120,000 square feet of micro-retail.
The JV was chosen for its response to a 2012 RFP jointly issued by the New York City Economic Development Corp. and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Five of the nine sites included in the RFP were acquired as part of a federal urban renewal plan that called for commercial and housing development, with demolition of the sites beginning in 1967. While portions of the plan were implemented, five sites remained undeveloped and have been used mainly for surface parking.
Regal's contribution to the Market Line project that will rise 50 years after the process began will encompass 14 screens and a full array of amenities, including electric recliners in every auditorium. The company also operates a total of 40 screens in Times Square, Union Square and Battery Park City, along with complexes in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
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Paul Bubny
Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.
