NYU Langone Confirmed to Own Kips Bay AMC Site, Theater to Close

Assemblymember Keith Powers confirmed that NYU Langone has owned the “site” of the AMC Kips Bay 15 for over a year now. The update came after it was revealed that the theater, located at 570 2nd Ave., would be closing by the end of the year.

Now, local officials are requesting answers from the health system.

In a post on X, Powers announced the discovery made by his office and shared that he and several of his coworkers have composed a letter to the company.

“We are going to ask Langone to meet with us and to talk to us about their plans and hopefully work on a plan that will include these great community anchor tenants that we have long depended on here in Kips Bay,” Powers said in a video.

It is still unclear exactly what NYU Langone owns or how much it paid. It is also currently unknown whether the Fairway Market to the right of the theater will also be closing. NYU Langone did not respond to requests for clarification.

Despite allegedly occurring over a year ago, the deal has yet to appear in city records. Instead, city records still list the owner of the building and lot as Kips Bay Development Limited Partnership. This entity obtained ownership of the lot, which spans from 30th to 32nd Streets on 2nd Avenue, in 1997.

The St. Vartan Park Conservancy Newsletter dug into AMC Entertainment’s SEC files and found that AMC received $13 million in 2023 from an undisclosed landlord who was seeking the right to terminate the lease of one theater early.

While it is unclear whether it is the same theater, much of the language lines up with the statement from AMC confirming the Kips Bay location’s closure.

According to a statement provided to Variety, the decision came “following the property owner’s decision to exercise its contractual right to terminate the theatre’s lease before its scheduled expiration.”

In a letter to NYU Langone, seven local officials, including Powers, expressed surprise that they did not have any prior knowledge of the deal.

“We were disappointed to learn that this acquisition took place without any notification of, or engagement with, local elected officials or residents,” the statement reads.

Along with Powers, the statement was signed by Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Councilmember Virginia Maloney, Assemblymember Micah Lasher, Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Councilmember Harvey Epstein, and State Senator Kristen Gonzalez.

Kevin O’Keefe, the president of the St. Vartan Park Conservancy, said the non-profit is also advocating for questions to be answered, as it could impact the wider community.

“Every time a question is asked and not answered by somebody that’s involved, it just brings up more questions,” O’Keefe said.

Why NYU Langone performed the deal with such secrecy and still has yet to release clarification remains unclear. Neither NYU Langone nor AMC responded to any of Straus News’ requests for comments.

“As you are aware, this property has drawn considerable public attention over the past week,” the statement from local officials said. “Despite that attention, our offices have received no communication about the future of the development, either before the transaction or in the days since.”

Given the significance the theater has to the neighborhood and beyond, the issue has become a flashpoint among the public. On the Reddit page r/nyc, commenters lamented the loss of the widely beloved theater.

“Truly a loss to the community,” one commenter said. “This was my go-to movie theater, and now there’s barely any left on the east side.”

Several others pointed to NYU Langone with disappointment. “At some point is NYU just going to buy all of Manhattan?” one Reddit user asked.

AMC began operating at the site in 1999. The location features 15 screens, making it the second-largest of the nine AMC locations in Manhattan, behind the 25-screen Times Square location. It also includes an IMAX theater—one of the few in Manhattan and the only one on the East Side.

However, a movie on this site has been a fixture of the neighborhood for far longer. According to the St. Vartan Park Conservancy Newsletter, the space has served as a theater since 1962, when it was first occupied by the Kips Bay Theater.

Petitions and a resident-led campaign, Save Kips Bay, have already sprung up with hopes of preserving the history of the space.

“Kips Bay needs restaurants, stores, entertainment and places for residents to actually enjoy their neighborhood, not block after block of institutional medical space,” Save Kips Bay’s website reads.

The potential development would come on the heels of the Science Park and Research Campus Kips Bay project, a science hub that former mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul announced in December 2025, likely near the same time period the NYU Langone deal is said to have occurred.

The project reflects city and state officials’ intention to foster the neighborhood’s growing science and health sector.

However, Powers is hoping that a balance can be struck between the two sides, as are the many residents who have called him.

“I’ve heard from many, many, many residents from Stuyvesant Town to Kips Bay to Murray Hill to honestly further than that,” Powers told Straus News. “I talked to an employee at NYU who told me that that’s where many of the employees go after work to go see a movie.”