Regal Cinemas In Essex Crossing Opens On The Lower East Side

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Regal Cinemas 14-screen movie theater opened at the Essex Crossing development over the weekend.

The Lower East Side's newest movie theater opened at 129 Delancey St. in the neighborhood's Essex Crossing development.

Bowery Boogie first reported its official opening. The theater features seating with attached tables so movie-goers can eat dinner, drink and watch movies. The theater's liquor license is still pending State Liquor Authority approval, public record shows.

Regal Cinemas' opening comes days after developers at the Lower East Side's now-closed Sunshine Cinema moved ahead on their plans to build a nine-story luxury office building at the more than 100-year-old building that once housed the neighborhood's main movie theater, Crain's reported last week.

The NYPD's 7th Precinct welcomed Regal in a tweet on Saturday.

This spring, the first portion of the new Essex Street Market is expected to open at the ground floor next to Regal Cinemas at the residential building dubbed The Essex, a 26-story building that is also Essex Crossing's tallest.

Current Essex Street Market vendors at the historic 120 Essex St. marketplace will relocate to the new market this spring. The Lo Down has been featuring some of the longtime vendors to be relocated — including Olive & Spice, Cafe D'avignon bakery, among others.

The market will extend below ground into the Market Line, with vendors like Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Veselka, Doughnut Plant, among others.

The Essex Crossing sites sat vacant since the late 1960s after walk-up tenement buildings were demolished, displacing more than 1,800 families, the New York Times reported in 2017. Decades of debate left the lots empty or filled with parking spaces.

Now, the entire complex will include 1,079 units, more than half set aside for below-market-rate apartments, developed by Delancey Street Associates — a partnership between L+M Development Partners, Taconic Investment Partners, BFC Partners, the Prusick Group and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group. Some 350,000 square feet of office space is expected too.