South Bay Cinemas
495 Montauk Highway,
West Babylon,
NY
11704
495 Montauk Highway,
West Babylon,
NY
11704
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 157 comments
I’ve been seeing some movement among the trucks at the site and over the weekend saw one worker at the ditch area near Montauk Highway.
Went by today. Dump truck and panel truck on site. No signs of life.
Would seem to be useless without parking for any use. Have they renewed the building permits with the West Babylon township?
As I suggested previously, the lease will be up before the renovation is completed. Maybe they should contact HGTV. They are famous for all their renovation shows which are accomplished in a reasonable period of time.
There has been no activity for a while. Took a look over the weekend thru the windows and the inside is still a shambles. They started to do some work months ago but it seems to have stopped again. It’s nowhere near being done.
You make good points. Is there any new activity on the site? What will new movies that are coming out like Ant Man and Mario do to your projections?
Why are they even bothering to open? Attendance is down and theatres are closing all around the USA. The Mattituck 8, the only theatre on Long Island’s North Fork, has just announced they will no longer screen first run movies because they are often not profitable. Some of the auditoriums are being retrofitted for other types of family entertainment. I wouldn’t be surprised if they relinquish some of their space and it returns to retail.
I hear that this theater is opening but liquor store is still there. What about parking? This is a huge issue! Anyone know?
There is new paper on the windows. The interior high hats were lit. They still haven’t finished the trim on the box office. There is an additional trench on the side of the building facing Montauk Highway. There are no Bobcats or dumpsters on the site.
Roe5685 The lease to which you refer is for adjacent parking, not the building, itself. The lot is always empty down by the theatre so that should not be what’s holding up the leasing or finally finishing the renovation.
If you look at the South Bay Facebook site you see the image of a much larger theatre than the current building, and in blue. This could only be accomplished if the adjacent liquor store is absorbed.
They are unable to negotiate a lease with adjacent shopping center.
The lease will be up by the time they finish.
They should just give it up already. Its been closed for many years now, no one probably thinks about it anymore.
There is definitely work going on inside, seems to be moving at a slow pace but stuff is happening in there.
I was at the shopping center a couple of weeks ago. It’s still boarded up. This is the same owner as the Bellmore Playhouse-JJ.
August update, such as it is. There is a trench on the side of the building leading up to the pile of dirt on the Montauk Highway side of the building. I didn’t notice it previously.
Pretty much the same as last time except that there were internal high hats lit in addition to the marquee in, what I presume, is going to be the hall approach to all the auditoriums. There is now a breach in the fence enclosing the site but with the paper on the windows there is nothing really to see when you’re close up. See you in August.
This has been in the works since 2016!!!!!Long Island has been losing theatres right and left. What are the odds that if and when they finally open it anyone will go? Theatres that were viable prior to the pandemic either closed on the spot or, when reopened, found no business. This has been off line for 6 years.
There are major construction delays everywhere
The only positive news is that the dumpster and the Bobcat are no longer on site. They haven’t totally finished the fascia in the reimagined box office space, the windows are still semi covered in brown paper (although that seems to be falling down of its own accord) and there is still a trench from the front of the building to the sidewalk and two piles of dirt. For whatever reason the high hats in the marquee were lit. So much for a projected Spring opening. Stayed tuned for my next report which will be early July.
No new update on their Facebook page. Went by today. They have finished reframing and enclosing the tiny box office area. It would seem that all the windows to be replaced have been installed. They are now covered with brown paper. The trench and the pile of dirt in the front of the theatre are still there. Behind the fencing there is a dump truck and a small Bobcat. Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of a waste of time and money since, if it ever opens, it won’t survive. A number of well established Long Island theatres did not survive Covid. They either closed on the spot or couldn’t successfully reestablish.
Yes, in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of V-E Day…!
There is still a large dumpster on the property and a large pile of sand in the front of the building behind the fencing. However, the fencing is now closer to the building.
Through the brand new windows they’ve installed you can see metal studs and pink insulation.
They’ve also removed the original box office and are now installing new metal girders. Looks like the new lobby will be smaller than the old.
Memorial Day?
ridethetrain - part of the Lynbrook delay was ousting tenants in the building. And they were unable to acquire one privately owned building which they built around. I suspect part of the village approval was related to the absence of parking.
@robbohm The Lynbrook project was proposed in 1995 by United Artists Theatre Circuit, they were originally going to expand the Marlboro and Bayside locations which never happen. Lynbrook took almost 25 years to finally happen. With all the political bs with the village, it took forever.
The Paramount in Stapleton, Staten Island had a long renovation that ended unsuccessfully.
From the time Regal announced it was going to level the Lynbrook and build a new theatre on the site took quite a bit of time. Interestingly there is not much of a difference in seating capacity from the old theatre to the new 9 story building which replaces it.