After nearly 20 years of screening independent and foreign films, Sunshine Cinema has closed its doors.
The Lower East Side theater’s new owners, K Property Group and East End Capital, plan to demolish the building to make way for boutique office space. Sunshine screened its last movies on Sunday, the New York Times reported.
Tim Nye, who obtained the lease to the building in 1994 and reopened it as a movie theater in 2001, told the Times that the theater was “doing incredible” financially but was also paying $8,000 each month. The rent was expected to rise at the end of the theater’s 25-year lease on Jan. 31.
“It’s the economics. We cannot pay market rent,” Nye said. “But we knew this day was coming from Day 1. It was a good run.”
East End and K Property bought the property last year for $31.5 million. The developers plan to build a nine-story office property in the theater’s place. [NYT] — Kathryn Brenzel