The curtain has come down on Sleepy Hollow Cinema’s plans to create a movie house in the Strand Theatre in the village’s downtown.
The community-based nonprofit, which wanted to develop a one-screen theater in the historic building, collapsed amid a disagreement over the lease with the landlord, according to a letter sent to the cinema group’s donors.
The century-old building on Beekman Avenue was purchased in 2025 by Lou Gruber for $1 million through Sleepy Hollow Long Table LLC. Gruber is project sponsor for $1.5 million in NY Forward funding for redevelopment of the building, which he estimated would cost between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.
Gruber stated he was “saddened that the project at The Strand will be unable to proceed with Sleepy Hollow Cinema as our anchor tenant,” adding that timing constraints of a state funding milestone meant he “could not find a path forward to reliably create a return for New York State’s investment by including the cinema in this part of Sleepy Hollow’s revitalization.”
The first-floor space envisioned for the cinema will be “re-imagined as a multi-functional space, able to host film screenings, but also theatrical performances, gallery openings, and many other forms of cultural events,” he stated. In a follow-up email, Gruber wrote he hoped to include a cafe or similar establishment in the mix.
Sleepy Hollow Cinema had raised $200,000 toward construction in The Strand as part of its agreement with Sleepy Hollow Long Table, but then balked over ”a lease that included terms we couldn’t accept as an ethical use of donor money,” its donor letter stated.
Those terms included $170,000 as a security deposit, requiring the hiring of an architect selected by Gruber, and allowing the landlord to cancel the lease and keep the deposit, according to the letter.
The contract barred the cinema group from publicly discussing the project, funding, or contract terms, alleged the letter to donors from the group’s chair, Marc Solomon. The organization received word Sept. 1 that the developer wasn’t interested in further negotiations.
Sleepy Hollow Cinema had completed the first draft of architectural plans for a theater at The Strand seating 100-120 people plus a lobby and cafe, with a fundraising goal of $950,000, according to its website.
Solomon emphasized the organization remained committed to opening a permanent, single-screen cinema in Sleepy Hollow. The cinema group said it had “some promising alternatives in the works” but was not ready to announce details.
“Sleepy Hollow Cinema isn’t going anywhere,” Solomon stated. “We’ll keep bringing film to our community through paid and free pop-up events in 10591.”
The group’s Home for Horror series features three weekends of screenings at the Lyceum Building in Tarrytown in October. It has also shown films at the Warner Library.
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