Billionaire Developer Aby Rosen Is Behind Hill Street Cinema LLC, New Owner of Southampton Movie Theater; Jay Bialsky Is Doing Renovation

An article published on Page Six in the New York Post on September 19 confirmed what has been an open secret in Southampton Village for months: Billionaire developer Aby Rosen is behind Hill Street Cinema LLC, which purchased the iconic Southampton movie theater on Hill Street for $8 million back in November 2022.

The theater, which has been closed since the start of the pandemic, had been on the market for years, with an asking price of $8.9 million back in early 2021.

In recent weeks, scaffolding went up around the facade of the colonial-style movie house, which was built in 1932, and received landmark status from the Southampton Village Board of Architectural Review and Historic Preservation in January 2023.

Workers were seen making improvements to the building in recent weeks, and builder and developer Jay Bialsky confirmed in a phone call with The Press last week that his company had been hired to do interior renovations and that the space would remain a movie theater. He did not comment further on the future plans for the cinema.

Efforts to reach Rosen have been unsuccessful.

The recent establishment of an arts and culture overlay district in Southampton Village will dictate, from a zoning perspective, what the theater can become. Village officials last week said they were unaware of what is planned.

Rosen, who owns a home in Southampton Village, has made a name for himself buying and renovating iconic buildings in Manhattan and beyond.

Local filmmakers and brothers Ben and Orson Cummings and several local financial backers have had their sights set on acquiring the property for years, starting a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Southampton Theater, and coming up with a detailed plan and vision for a community-oriented revamp of the theater. They confirmed earlier this week that they’ve made offers to Rosen to purchase the theater, but said that so far, he is “moving forward with his own vision for the theater.”

When asked if they knew what Rosen’s vision was, they declined to comment.

The Cummings brothers, who say that seeing movies at the theater during their formative years inspired their love of movies and filmmaking, are still hopeful that the theater can be a community-oriented space, with or without their direct involvement.

“This is bigger than us,” Orson Cummings said. “This should be a community theater for everybody. That’s the key.”