The 12-screen movie theater which has been an anchor of the Hudson Valley Mall for nearly four decades will close its doors for good as of Thursday, Aug. 16. The shutdown was announced by signs posted at the Regal Cinemas Hudson Valley Mall earlier this week. The cinema’s website lists no features playing after Aug. 16.
Back in April, mall owners the Georgia-based Hull Property Group confirmed that the theater would shut down by Aug. 31. At the time company Vice President John Mulherin said that Hull Property Group was in talks with another theater chain to take over the site once Regal left. Mulherin added that upgrading the 12-screen cinema was a top priority for the company which bought the mall for $8.1 million back in January 2017. Hull representatives did not return calls and emails this week requesting comment on the shutdown or the prospects for a new operator at the site.
The theater at the mall has operated since 1981, undergoing changes in ownership and expansion along the way.
There is one solve, and only one solve for the problems at HVM: Keep Target, Best Buy, and Dicks and tear the rest of the building down, re-design and re-develop it. Part of that redevelopment would be a new multi-screen
theatre (probaly 8 screens) and the rest would have to be (no choice or debate here) a combination of outdoor and enclosed smaller-scale retail, condos, and medical-office-research space.
Completely re-design the parking field to be green, landscaped and focused near retail entrances…
There is no other plan that works. A 1980s mall landscape is no longer needed or relevant.