The Fight to Keep Kips Bay AMC 15 Open Heats Up As Residents Speak Out

Keep the cameras rolling— he fight to keep the Kips Bay AMC 15 open isn’t over yet.

A group of protesters and local officials rallied outside of the beloved community spot on Sept. 20, chanting “Save our theater!”

The demonstration was the latest development in the saga that started over a month ago, when it was announced the AMC would be closing at the end of the year and that NYU Langone had acquired the site. The health care institution has since said the purchase has not yet closed.

However, the transaction, which has been described as lacking transparency, has upset community members who say the theater is essential to the neighborhood.

“We come to this place for magic,” Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said at the rally. “We come to the AMC Theatres to laugh, to cry, to care.”

The rally, which was organized by the Eleanor Roosevelt Independent Democrats, was attended by dozens, holding signs saying “OUR KIDS NEED COMMUNITY SPACES” and “CINEMA IS CULTURE.”

Also present was Assembly Member Keith Powers, who confirmed that NYU Langone had acquired the space and has been helping lead the charge to discuss a compromise with the health care institution.

Powers said that after communicating with AMC, it expressed its desire to stay in the location.

“This beloved movie theater, the AMC, standing right behind us, was served an eviction notice, leaving this entire retail quarter under question of what the future here would be,” Powers said at the rally.

In response to the demonstration, NYU Langone issued a statement describing its intent to “expand clinical services” and clarifying the status of the real estate transaction.

“When the owner of the Second Avenue property approached us most recently regarding a potential sale, we recognized that the site’s proximity to our hospital could help support those long-term community health care needs,” the statement read. “The purchase remains under contract and is not expected to close until early next year. Years before NYU Langone was approached about the property, AMC and the landlord entered into a lease granting either party a right to terminate at any time.”

Powers said that NYU Langone is planning to take over the site next February or March. As the St. Vartan Park Conservancy discovered, the last showtime the AMC offers through its advance ticketing system is on Jan. 4, 2027, for “Dune: Part 3.” This may be when the theater runs its final credits.

However, some worry that the theater won’t be the only loss, and that other local businesses around the AMC and the Fairway Market also in the plaza will be affected as well. Another business in the plaza, the Bank of America, announced it would be relocating by mid-October.

Fairways, which occupies the southern corner of the Kips Bay Plaza is posting signs that it plans to stay put for “years to come.”

“Are we going to have communities that still have small businesses, that still have places where we gather together in community, where we want to raise a family where you can live out your years with access to the amenities that make this city livable and affordable?” Assembly Member Micah Lasher asked at the rally. “The question of what happens to this movie theater is part and parcel of that bigger fight.”

Several small businesses around the theater rely in some part on the foot traffic it provides. Paddy Reilly’s, an Irish pub across the street, promoted the rally on its social media and offered a free drink to attendees.

This worry also came up at the Community Board 6 meeting on Sep. 9, at the beginning of which chair Sandra McKee shared a report on the written testimonies the board had received concerning the issue.

“Many raised a broader concern that Kips Bay and Murray Hill are gradually being turned into an institutional district, hospitals, labs, offices, etcetera, at the expense of the everyday amenities that make a neighborhood livable,” McKee said.

For some, losing the Fairway Market would be a bigger tragedy. Many expressed that they see it as the only affordable grocery store in the area.

Fairway released a statement describing its intent to stay at the location “for many years to come.” The grocer began a 20-year lease in the location in 2012 with option to extend till 2052. However, anxieties were still high for the CB6 meeting attendees, who overwhelmingly expressed disappointment at NYU Langone’s lack of transparency and their desire for the theater to remain.

“This AMC is part of the fabric of this neighborhood,” said Jake Silver, who has lived in the neighborhood for three decades. “I’m raising a family in this neighborhood, and I don’t want my son to grow up kind of on a medical complex.”