Business & Tech

A Movie Theater or Something More? [Empty in Riverhead]

Supervisor Sean Walter said a plan to put a movie theater in the old Woolworth Building is moving forward. What do you think?

New stores and restaurants are returning to downtown Riverhead, but there are more than a handful of empty or boarded-up storefronts in the community, a sign of the hard times Riverhead, and the country, has faced.

Riverhead Patch is going to spotlight some of these vacant businesses to start a discussion in the community about what can, could or should be done to make use of the abandoned places across town and revitalize Riverhead.

Perhaps more than any other proposal, one idea seems to capture the interest of Riverheaders: a downtown movie theater. The idea of a building a cinema downtown has been around for decades since the in 1987 due to the rise of multiplexes. Today, there are no movie theaters in the town of Riverhead.

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But many have tried to bring a movie theater back to town. The furthest along proposal involves the former Woolworth building next to the Suffolk Theatre. The site was bought by the Apollo Group, a development firm, in 2006 for $4.3 million. The group had planned to use the Woolworth building as a centerpiece for their economic development, but that plan fell apart in 2007 as the economy crashed.

Developer Ron Parr is now reportedly in talks with the Apollo Group to buy the property, and most recently , one of the largest cinema chains in the country, who came to downtown to tour the area in late July.

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Parr has proposed a 35,000-square-foot multiscreen movie theater on the site. Things have been quiet for months on the project as those involved in the deal are "crunching numbers," according to Town Supervisor Sean Walter.

Following his re-election, Walter said getting the movie theater in the old Woolworth building was a top priority, and said progress was being made on a deal.

"The movie theater is going very well," Walter said. "I hoping in the next 60 days to announce a movie theater, but that's what I'm hoping."

The Woolworth building isn't the only proposed movie theater in town. The , a $140 proposal that includes a 10-screen multiplex near the railroad station as well as apartments and commercial space on Main Street, was recently revived in September. Walter said the group's leaders "haven't said a word" to him recently.

Today, the Woolworth building remains empty; remnants of its former life still remain, like the faded "Woolworth" sign painted onto the back of the building.

What would you like to see built at the Woolworth building? Do you want to see the movie theater go through here, or would you rather see the Vintage Village project be approved? Or something else?


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