Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas is set to close later this year.
Photo via Google Maps
Queens is set to lose one of its few remaining movie theaters this year, and another one appears in jeopardy, amid a nationwide decline in the big screen industry.
The Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas will shut down in June, according to the Mattone Group Jamaica Company, a real estate investment firm that spearheaded bringing the theater to Jamaica, and also managed it over the past two decades.
Meanwhile, the College Point Multiplex Cinemas, just five miles away, looks slated to close, with reports emerging last week that developers are in the process of transforming the cinema site into a distribution center.
The parent company of the two theaters, Showcase Cinemas, notified the owner of the Jamaica property last month that it does not plan on renewing the lease. Showcase initially signed on for a 20-year lease in 2002, and then received a short two-year extension in 2022, which is set to expire in June.
The Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas, a 15-plex cinema located on Jamaica Avenue, opened in May 2002 – the same month that the original Spider-Man movie was released. When the cinema first opened its doors, the operators were still running movies on giant rolls of film.
“We hate to see it go. It’s unfortunate, but a sign of the times,” said Michael Mattone, who recounted breaking ground on the previously vacant lot where Jamaica Center now stands in 2000. “We were hoping that they would stay, but I can’t say it came as a total surprise.”
Showcase Cinemas is owned by National Amusements, which collectively owns 1,500 theaters across the world under a variety of theater brands including Cinema de Lux and Multiplex Cinemas. Its theaters in the United States are almost exclusively in the Northeast.
The company has closed several theaters in the past year but has yet to formally announce the closure of the Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas.
The future of the College…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply