"To be clear, we want to stay," an AMC spokesperson told The City Reporter this month, adding that the decision "is ultimately not ours to make." The landlord has ended the theater's lease, and AMC Kips Bay 15 at 570 Second Avenue has showtimes scheduled through January 3, 2027. That leaves a little over two months.
Most coverage has treated this as the end of one movie theater. For anyone who shops, eats and spends evenings between East 23rd and 34th Streets, the bigger story is everything around the theater. Kips Bay Plaza has a second tenant with its own clock. The buyer under contract has described a clinical use for the site. And a few blocks west, another large storefront has gone to the same institution.
The two clocks at 570 Second Avenue
The plaza has two anchor tenants, and their timelines are very different.
| Tenant | What is known as of mid-October 2026 | Stated timeline |
|---|---|---|
| AMC Kips Bay 15 | Landlord exercised an early-termination right; AMC says it wants to stay | Showtimes through Jan. 3, 2027 |
| Fairway Market | Lease cannot be ended early; no commitment from NYU Langone beyond its term | About five years remaining |
| The property itself | NYU Langone purchase under contract | Closing expected early 2027 |
The AMC date comes from AMC itself. NY1 reported in August that the closure is happening because the property owner is using its right to end the lease before it expires. According to the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association's recap of the October 8 Community Board 6 meeting, that right comes from a pandemic-era lease agreement that lowered AMC's rent and let either side end the lease early. NYU Langone's statement to the board said AMC had "expressed interest in leaving" years earlier. AMC has confirmed that the landlord, not AMC, ended the lease.
The Fairway figure is the one with a longer tail. At the same meeting, Assemblymember Keith Powers said the grocery has roughly five years left on its lease and cannot be evicted during that time. He also said NYU Langone "would not make any commitment" to keeping Fairway after the lease ends, as The City Reporter reported. As of October 2026, the theater closes this winter, the grocery is secure for roughly five more years, and the question after that has no answer yet.
What NYU Langone has said the site is for
NYU Langone has its flagship campus nearby on First Avenue. In its written statement to the board, it said it plans a "clinical outpatient center." It tied that to a measurable change: average daily visits to its emergency department are up 11% since the Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital closed in April 2025. The statement said that more outpatient care nearby would give "more flexibility to many patients currently seeking care" in the emergency department for issues that could be handled elsewhere. NYU did not attend the meeting. A representative's statement was read aloud instead.
Local officials disagree about whether a land-use review is coming at all. State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, Councilmember Virginia Maloney and Powers said it is not yet clear whether the project needs a rezoning. Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said he would make any approval of a land-use application depend on including a new cinema and an affordable grocery store, according to The City Reporter. A zoning consultant quoted in the same report said a large new building or commercial co-tenants would require a rezoning or special permit, while simply "occupying the space" would not.
This matters for anyone who wants a theater on Second Avenue again. The borough president's statement applies to a land-use application. Whether one is filed depends on what gets built, and that has not been announced.
The same pattern on Lexington Avenue
Kips Bay Plaza is not the only large storefront changing hands. The former COCO-MAT mattress store, which takes up much of the block on Lexington Avenue between East 31st and 32nd Streets, now has window signs reading "Future home of NYU Langone Health."
The Murray Hill Neighborhood Association put the question publicly in a Facebook post: "How much of our neighborhood's street-level space should become part of one medical institution's growing footprint?" Jessica Lavoie, who chairs the association's quality-of-life committee, told The City Reporter that "there has to be a good balance of businesses so Murray Hill and Kips Bay remain places where people can live, shop, work and enjoy the community."
Taken together, two large retail footprints a few blocks apart are heading to the same institution. That is why the AMC fight drew a crowd. Residents and neighborhood groups rallied outside the theater on September 20, and the October 8 meeting filled a small room.
Where movie night goes after January 3
The theater opened in 1999, and AMC took it over in 2006, according to NY1. When it closes, none of the replacement screens will be in Kips Bay. Every nearby option is south toward Union Square and the East Village, or across town on West 34th Street. Here are the closest choices, each currently showing films:
- AMC 19th St. East 6, 890 Broadway. This is the nearest AMC to stay in the chain. Its listed features include heated Signature Recliners and AMC Artisan Films programming.
- Regal Union Square, 850 Broadway. It is a block south of the AMC on Broadway, and its showtimes page lists 70mm presentations and stadium seating.
- Village East by Angelika, 181–189 Second Avenue. This is the only one on the same avenue as the Kips Bay theater. Village Preservation describes its programming as a mix of independent and box-office films.
- Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street. It hosts film festivals and special screenings. Village Preservation reports that Nick Nicolaou has owned and run it since the 1980s, and his children now manage it.
- AMC 34th Street 14, 312 West 34th Street. This is the large-format choice on the list, with IMAX with Laser and Dolby Cinema. It is a crosstown trip, not a walk around the corner.
NY1 lists AMC 34th Street 14 and AMC 19th St. East 6 among the eight Manhattan AMC locations that will keep operating, so an AMC membership will still work nearby. The difference is distance. Dinner and a movie on Second Avenue in the East 30s turns into a trip to Broadway or the East Village.
What the neighborhood is adding meanwhile
Taftoon, a Persian street-food restaurant, opened July 28 at 388 Third Avenue at East 28th Street, according to Eater New York. It is a small independent restaurant on the avenue one block west of the theater, the kind of street-level use the neighborhood association says it wants to protect.
The parks have their own timeline. The St. Vartan Park Conservancy says reconstruction of the half-acre playground began the week of March 15, 2026, and is planned to take 12 months. The playground is closed, but the rest of the park and the restrooms stay open, and the Conservancy expects the playground to reopen in spring 2027. By then, the NYU Langone purchase is expected to have closed. A Kips Bay spring will gain a rebuilt playground on First Avenue and lose a cinema on Second.
For something hands-on this fall, the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association is planting more than 500 daffodils on Sunday, November 8, from 2 to 4 p.m. The meeting spot is East 37th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues, outside The Coffee Haus. The same association has been the most consistent public record of the AMC fight. Anyone following what happens at 570 Second Avenue after the sale closes can follow it there and at Community Board 6.
At Heather Domi Team, we watch how changes like the Kips Bay Plaza sale reshape the blocks around them, and we talk about it plainly with the East Side owners we advise. If you want to talk through what the 570 Second Avenue timeline may mean for your building or your plans, Schedule a Consultation.
