Manhasset Cinemas sells for $3 million to film producer

A film producer has big plans to turn a historic Manhasset movie theater into a newly rehabbed theater.

Producer Jack Heller, who leads the film production company Assemble Media, purchased the 15,500-square-foot movie Manhasset Cinemas at 430 Plandome Road, according to a representative for Heller. He paid $3 million for the theater and the corner retail space next door, said Clem Coté, a managing principal at Sovereign Realty Group based in Syosset, who arranged the deal for Heller and the seller, Cinemas GMC LLC.

Heller plans to renovate the currently shuttered theater, Coté said. Heller has already started emptying the theater of debris after closing on the purchase at the end of July, Coté said.

"This first phase of renovations marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter, with a long-term vision to transform the property into a premier entertainment destination featuring best-in-class exhibition technology, elevated guest experiences, and a lasting commitment to serving and strengthening the local community," Heller said in an emailed statement.

The building has long been a theater, and Coté said he was glad that it would remain that way.

“For anyone who lives in this area, this is really the only place to go” to watch a movie, Coté said. “I think they were really keen on keeping it this way.”

The three-screen cinema building has been run by several different operators, including Clearview Cinemas in the early 2010s and Bow Tie Cinemas by 2015, according to Google Images of the property from the time. A new operator took over in 2019, after Great Neck-based real estate investor and property manager Gilman Management Corp. bought the property in 2018, Newsday reported.

The theater struggled during the pandemic as local businesses were forced to shutter, and the theater’s operator sued Gilman and its affiliates, claiming Gilman failed to honor a 2019 agreement for the operator to end its contract at the Manhasset theater. The case was settled in December out of court, records show.

A representative for Gilman Management Corp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The number of independent movie theaters on Long Island and in the United States shrank in the wake of the pandemic, Newsday reported.

Coté was unsure whether the theater would remain closed during the renovation work.

But Coté expected that the renovation, once completed, would benefit Manhasset.

“If you have a chance to preserve something that has meaning and just inject new life into it, I think that's a great course to go on,” Coté said.

Correction: This story has been corrected to say that Jack Heller, the head of Assemble Media, purchased the theater. A previous version of the story incorrectly described the buyer due to incorrect information from the broker.