WESTBROOK —– Will it stay, or will it go? That’s the question about the future of Westbrook Cinemas in light of recent plans for a $425 million redevelopment of Westbrook Outlets.
The theater is located on the east end of the shopping center.
Harold Blank, co-owner of the Westbrook Cinemas, does not know how the theater will fit in with the multi-million dollar mixed-use complex. Part of the redevelopment calls for the demolition of four retail buildings on the outlet center property.
“When we made a deal with the landlord it was a temporary deal,” Blank noted.
“It’s always been temporary, with the understanding that there’d be a redevelopment of the center,” he said.
Blank said there is no specific timeframe for the short-term lease, but “it’s in their favor, in the sense that if they needed me to go, I would go.”
The former 40,000-square-foot Marquee Cinemas, with 12 screens, opened in January last year as Westbrook Cinemas under the ownership of Blank and Bill Dougherty.
Blank said the theater is doing “fine” in the current location.
“It’s an older theater, it does not perform like the modern, stadium theaters, but it’s been fine,” he said.
“We’re happy there,” he said. “We’re playing all the first-run movies, actually adding in some art films since the New Haven theater has closed,” he said, referring to the former Criterion Cinemas in New Haven.
“I hope to see a theater remain in Westbrook,” he said. “It’s a good location, halfway between Saybrook and Branford.”
Blank and Dougherty are also owners of Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Madison Cinemas and All South County Luxury in South Kingston, RI.
Blank talked about the Madison theater, which was completely renovated after the team purchased it in late 2021 from longtime owner Arnold Gorlick.
“I’ve always wanted this theater to be a theater for the people of the town, everybody from a pure art lover to the young families,” he said.
“That’s what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re playing a mix of films, we’re doing the operas, we’re doing “Maestro,” these smart films that out there right now,” he said.
“We’re doing the best we can to play a mix so that the theater will survive long term,” he said. “I think that long term the theater has a life.”
In Westbrook, representatives for Hartford-based Lexington Partners and officials with the outlet center went before the town's Zoning Commission on Monday, Jan. 22 to do a pre-application presentation of their plans for the outlet.
The $425 million project would include 595 apartments, 100 town homes, a 100-room hotel and 75,000 square feet of retail space and restaurants on the 49.7 acre property on Flat Rock Place, according to Town Planner Peter Gillespie.
Outlet center giant Tanger Outlets sold the Westbrook retail center to a limited liability company, T Westbrook Center, for $40 million in May 2017, according to municipal records. Records filed with the Connecticut Secretary of State’s office at the time identified the principal of T Westbrook Center LLC as Hoche Partners Real Estate, which is a U.S. affiliate of a French company.
Since the sale of the property, Gillespie said the level of tenants at Westbrook Outlets has declined steadily. The retail center has 290,000-square-feet of space, but is only about 25 percent occupied, he said.
Blank said he will work to keep the theater where it currently is located.
“At some point I’m going to speak with the landlord, once they get things going, and we’ll go from there,” Blank said.
“I think it’s exciting for the developers to have a plan to fix the center,” he said. “I hope that we can be part of it.”
Luther Turmelle contributed to this article. Contact Sarah Page Kyrcz at suzipage1@aol.com.