Regal Replacing South Korea-Based CJ CGV at Tangram Development in Flushing
By Lauren Elkies Schram January 15, 2019 5:00 pm
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A year and three months after announcing that South Korea-Based CJ CGV would be the theater operator at Tangram, the developers of the 1.2-million-square-foot mixed-use project under construction in Flushing, Queens, have replaced CJ CGV with Regal Cinemas.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, “F&T [Group] and SCG [America] felt Regal was a better fit for the project and pulled out of the deal with CJ CGV. Tangram is a major project that’s elevating the lifestyle in Flushing so it made sense that they wanted to go with a globally recognized brand like Regal, especially with the 4DX experience.”
Regal has leased the 34,000-square-foot space from the developers, SCG America and F&T Group, and will run a multiplex with seven cinemas and the first 4DX experience—like a theme-park ride—in the borough. The asking rent for the space was $65 per square foot, per a Tangram spokeswoman. The New York Post first reported the news about the operator change.
Tangram, with a design by Margulies Hoelzli Architecture, will include 320-plus luxury residences within two towers (sales launched at one tower in fall 2017 with prices starting at $600,000 for a studio apartment), a 12-story commercial tower with 48 office condominium units (ranging from 1,367 square feet to 3,069 square feet and $1.6 million to $3.4 million), 275,000 square feet of retail and themed restaurants, and a 27,000-square-foot food hall and beer garden operated by F&T. The development, at 133-15 39th Avenue, spans a full-block site, with frontage on 37th Avenue, Prince Street, 39th Avenue and College Point Boulevard.
Richard Siu, the chief investment officer of F&T Group, said in a prepared statement: “Regal is the ideal brand to bring a fully immersive cinema experience that will be an entertainment destination for all of Queens. This is not only a win for Tangram but for all of Flushing and definitely speaks to the caliber of lifestyle we are creating with this transformative project.”
Jeff Pandolfo of SCG Retail represented the project in the deal. He wasn’t immediately reachable. Robert Greenstone of Greenstone Realty represented Regal.
“We’ve been looking at Flushing for a while,” Greenstone said. “The space was fairly built out to accommodate a movie theater. There is a population there that is being overlooked that is very dense and is very sophisticated.”
And while there is a lot of competition out there, movie theaters are not going away.
“Movie theaters had long been predicted to fail because of streaming video,” Greenstone said. “Before that it was Blockbuster. And the thing is, how does a movie theater reinvent itself? It is the de facto central point for the community.”
The Tangram theater in Flushing will be different than old incarnations of Regal, the broker promised, “including better visual and sensory experiences through technology and certain contracts exclusive to [Regal].”
