Cinema 123 closes on Third Avenue after 64-year run in Lenox Hill

Cinema 123 ran its final showings the night of October 29, ending a 64-year run on Third Avenue in Lenox Hill. Once the lights stayed off, only one movie theater remained open in the surrounding Upper East Side blocks, according to the Upper East Site report that first confirmed the closure.

Why it matters

The closure lands on a developer, builder, or agent desk the same way: a large, long-held entertainment footprint on a Third Avenue corner near Bloomingdale’s goes dark with no buyer on record. ACRIS filings tie the building to Sutton Hill Properties LLC, the entity Reading International Inc. uses to hold its New York City theater real estate. That LLC refinanced the property in 2023 rather than sell it, which means the site’s next use, whether re-leased as a theater, converted to retail, or redeveloped, is still an open question for anyone watching the block. Readers felt the loss directly. “This development saddens me and my friends as we have enjoyed years of movie-going enjoyment,” one commenter, identified as Out of Town Transplant, wrote on the Upper East Site report.

The numbers

Sutton Hill Properties LLC recorded a loan package totaling $21,060,912.57 with Valley National Bank on October 12, 2023, covering the Third Avenue parcel at block 1414, lot 48 in Manhattan, per the agreement filed under CRFN 2023000262607. That filing, an agreement paired with an assignment of leases and rents, is the most recent document ACRIS shows against the property. No deed transfer has posted since, through the mirror’s September 30, 2026 good-through date, meaning ownership of the building has not changed even as the theater inside it has stopped running films.

What’s next

With no sale on record, the building’s near-term path runs through its current owner rather than a new buyer. A vacant, roughly block-long theater footprint on Third Avenue is the kind of space agents and small developers track for retail or entertainment re-tenanting, and the 2023 loan package means Sutton Hill Properties LLC has financing in place that does not force a quick sale. Anyone leasing or building near Lenox Hill should watch for a Department of Buildings filing or a new ACRIS deed at this address as the clearest signal of what comes next. For more on Manhattan real estate moves, see New York.