AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron has launched an open letter to New York Metropolis residents reiterating the corporate’s need to proceed working its long-running Kips Bay 15 multiplex within the Manhattan neighborhood of the identical identify, however admits the choice is just not AMC’s to make.
Neighbors in Manhattan’s Kips Bay-Murray Hill neighborhood alongside Second Avenue close to the East River have spoken out concerning the deliberate closure of the multiplex that has been a central buying heart since 1999 (AMC took over the situation in 2006). The property on which the multiplex sits was bought final yr by NYU Langone, certainly one of New York’s main well being methods.
AMC introduced in August that the acquisition would seemingly outcome within the multiplex closing by the top of this yr, sparking outcry and protests from space residents and different companies.
Following “direct engagement” from Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, AMC’s Aron launched an open letter agreeing with Hoylman-Sigal that the neighborhood wants facilities resembling a movie show, grocery store and housing.
Aron writes: “Since information broke that our standard 15-screen AMC Kips Bay Theater at 570 Second Avenue in Manhattan will quickly be pressured to shut its doorways towards our needs, I’ve been struck by the extraordinary help this AMC Theater has obtained from the encompassing area people. »
Learn the total assertion under.
“AMC Theaters doesn’t wish to go,” Aron writes. “Under no circumstances. AMC Theaters needs to remain in Kips Bay…Apparently, NYU Langone Well being doesn’t share that view, nor ours or yours. Sadly, the choice to maintain or finish AMC’s tenure in Kips Bay is just not ours to make.”
In keeping with Aron, NYU Langone Well being Facility “needs to broaden, seems to be within the course of of buying the constructing during which your (our) theater at present operates, and it needs us to go away. In anticipation of such a transfer to NYU Langone, the present proprietor of the constructing has terminated our lease.”
Aron notes that AMC has “engaged” with NYU Langone to counsel numerous alternate options that might permit the multiplex to proceed working in some type. “Sadly, all the variations now we have proposed have fallen into closed minds,” he wrote, including: “We name on NYU Langone Well being to open its minds, suppose creatively, and discover a resolution that can give the Kips Bay neighborhood BOTH of the 2 issues which are most wanted: expanded amenities providing the world-class medical care that’s the hallmark of NYU Langone Well being AND a completely functioning AMC theater on Second Avenue.
The AMC chief warns that point is working out for the venue. “Until NYU Langone Well being permits us to thrill the Kips Bay neighborhood past this date, to adjust to our terminated lease, the lights of AMC Kips Bay 15 will without end see their final sundown on January 3, simply two and a half months from now.”
AMC at present operates 9 multiplexes in Manhattan.
Right here is Aron’s full assertion: