For Lease: Former Movie Theater

by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent

Nearly two years after New Haven’s last commercial movie theater screened its last film, the ex-Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas site is still closed — with more than 28,000 square feet of retail space now listed for lease.

The Criterion’s marquee remains at 80 Temple St., even as the front doors and windows are papered over and a large blue-and-white ​“For Lease” sign hangs next to advertisements for the Criterion Cafe and ​“Signature Popcorn With Real Butter.”

The nine-screen movie theater — which operated for roughly two decades on the ground floor of a 44-unit apartment building owned by an affiliate of Bow Tie Partners — showed its last film in October 2023. Its closure left the city without a single first-run cinema. 

Even though the Friends Center for Children has now opened a refurbished theater at its cinema-turned-daycare campus on Flint Street – and venues like Best Video, Lotta Studio, Lyric Hall, and the Yale Film Archive continue to host plenty of opportunities to go out and watch a great movie with friends — New Haven still has nowhere within city limits where one can go to catch newly released films. The closest movie theater is the Cinemark in North Haven.

So, these nearly two years later, what’s up with the former Criterion site at 80 Temple?

The ​“For Lease” sign at the property’s entrance lists the New York-based Royal Properties as the real estate broker for 80 Temple.

In late March of this year, Royal Properties published a press release on its website stating that the firm had been named ​“the exclusive broker to lease the former Criterion Cinemas,” with between 3,417 and 28,238 square feet of retail space now available.

“This property offers a unique opportunity for businesses looking to establish themselves in the heart of New Haven,” Royal Properties Principal Jeff Kintzer is quoted as saying in that press release. ​“We are confident that this property will attract a lot of interest from potential tenants.”

An online listing and accompanying PowerPoint presentation for the property on Royal’s website describes auditoriums ranging in size from 47 seats and 663 square feet to 216 seats and 2,582 square feet. It includes possible reconfigurations of the space into five different retail sites ranging in size from 1,390 square feet to 14,412 square feet, as well as a single 26,848-square foot location with an accompanying 1,390-square foot mezzanine.

In a brief phone interview Monday, Kintzer said that his firm had been ​“in touch with a lot of people, and hopefully we’ll have a deal to announce in a couple of months” in regards to the former movie theater site.

He declined to share any further details about ​“ongoing negotiations” for leasing out the ex-cinema, including what potential use might replace the old Criterion. ​“There’s some decent interest” in the site, he said. ​“We’re just going through the process.”

Asked for comment for this article, city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said, ​“It is great to see the new listing, particularly with the potential break out spaces given the full theatre is a very large space. We will continue to look for potential tenants, particularly in the arts and cultural spaces.”

And asked for comment on behalf of the property’s owner about the latest with this ex-cinema site, Bow Tie Partners Vice President of Operations Brooke Sugaski directed the Independent to the Royal Properties online listing. ​“The theatre space is on the market for lease,” she said.