Showcase Cinema at Hicksville shopping mall to close

The movie theater at the shopping mall formerly known as Broadway Commons will close in early 2025 after nearly 30 years at the Hicksville property.

The Showcase Cinema de Lux Broadway will close Jan. 5, according to the theater chain.

"Due to a business decision, we have chosen not to renew our lease," Showcase Cinemas said in a statement Monday while encouraging patrons to visit the chain's other nearby locations in Farmingdale and Holtsville.

Owned by Norwood, Massachusetts-based National Amusements Inc., Showcase Cinemas declined to say why it chose not to renew the lease or how many employees work at the theater.

K/BTF Broadway LLC, which is the real estate partnership that bought the mall this year and renamed it The Shoppes on Broadway, declined to comment. It is unknown if a new operator will take over the theater or if a theater will even be part of the planned $100 million redevelopment of the mall.

Located at 955 S. Broadway, the theater was named Broadway Multiplex Cinemas when the 12-screen, 3,000-seat venue opened in May 1995, as part of a redevelopment of what was then called Broadway Mall.

In 2014, National Amusements upgraded the theater, installing larger, nearly fully reclining seats, which reduced the total number of seats to fewer than 1,000.

The theater later became the Showcase Cinema de Lux Broadway.

The movie theater is one of the few anchor tenants at the mall, which has been undergoing tenancy challenges for several years.

The other anchors are a Target and the only Ikea on Long Island — both of those retailers own their buildings — as well as Round1 Bowling & Arcade.

Visitors at the mall on Tuesday afternoon were sorry to learn the theater was closing.

Queens resident José Sabujo was headed to the mall's food court during his lunch break from his job in Westbury.

The mall's overall foot traffic is light, which is likely affecting the movie theater, he said.

"The other movie theaters will be, like, super crowded [when blockbusters are playing], but you can always find seating here," said Sabujo, 37. 

Mall redevelopment planned

In February, K/BTF Broadway bought the majority of the mall property, 59.37 acres, from UBS Group AG, a Swiss investment bank, for $40 million. The mall is 1.1 million square feet, but only 729,862 square feet were sold to K/BTF Broadway because Target, Ikea and four out-parcels were not included in the transaction.

K/BTF Broadway plans to convert the property to an open-air "lifestyle center" that will focus on retail, dining and entertainment, which Newsday reported in June.

The redevelopment will take the property back to its roots somewhat, since it started out as an open-air shopping center called Mid-Island Shopping Plaza when it was built in 1956.

The shopping center was enclosed in 1968. It was renamed Broadway Mall in 1989 after a redevelopment.

The mall’s last major redevelopment was in 2016, and it was renamed Broadway Commons in 2017.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.