Carmel Cinema In The Black?

I attended the Putnam County’s Economic Development Committee Meeting. Brought before the committee to speak was Kathleen Ables. Ms. Ables serves as the President of the Putnam County Economic Development Corporation.

Ms. Ables has no decision making capabilities for these businesses or projects, and it should not be confused that she does. She was delivering a report that provides insights and information to the Putnam County Legislature.

During her comments she delivered reports and updates on various economic updates throughout Putnam County. What was striking to me, as both a resident of District 5 (Carmel Hamlet, Lake Carmel, Hill and Dale, etc.) and a candidate to represent that district in the County Legislature, was how we were one of the the only districts to have bad news.

She first mentioned the infamous “Gleneida Distillery” a project that has been in development since 2014(!!). Sadly, the head of the company recently passed away unexpectedly while living overseas in Romania. His son is slated to step up, but an already agonizingly ambiguous project is now thrown into even more uncertainty, uncertainty that has lasted more than a decade.

Then she got to Carmel Cinema. I have expressed my thoughts and concerns about this project here. What was a little disconcerting to me, is that when she spoke on this, it was almost as if it was an accepted fact that the cinema was a failing business.

This prompted incumbent District 5 Legislator Greg Ellner to inform her that, per his conversations directly with the Cinema representatives, Carmel Cinema was operating in the black.

Even more alarming from Legislator Ellner’s comments, was his confirmation that Regency Centers, the landlord, never even tried to negotiate a new lease with the cinema. They were given no choice. In fact, according to Ms. Ables, Regency Cinema knew this was going to be their decision a year and a half ago, apparently unbeknownst to Carmel Cinema.

Legislator Ellner and Chairman of the committee Legislator Bill Gouldman prompted Ms. Ables to further investigate the veracity of this information. I then rose to speak directly Ms. Ables.

I expressed my concerns. As a resident of the Hamlet, I explained that we are tired of looking at store front vacancies. We understand that businesses come and go, and that no business should stick around purely on nostalgia alone.

View my FULL, unedited comments here:

My concern, and that of the many neighbors I have spoken to about this, is what happens next? Are we looking at another multi-year vacancy? I informed Ms. Ables, that of the three major areas for economic development in Carmel Hamlet, Regency Centers owns two of them (ShopRite Plaza and Putnam Plaza). They have enormous control over what our community will look like. And both plazas continue to see prolonged store front vacancies under their stewardship.

I asked Ms. Ables to look further into this, investigate what Regency Centers intends for these spaces, and to please share that information with the committee. I will continue to work with the Legislature to secure further information as this continues to unfold.

To watch the full meeting, you can watch it unedited here on YouTube.