An update on the Strand - and what's next
Friends,
It's with mixed emotions that I write to you with some important updates about Sleepy Hollow Cinema.
First, the good news: this community rallied around the idea of a true cultural anchor for downtown Sleepy Hollow, a nonprofit cinema for a new generation of movie-goers. We raised our first $200,000 in seed money to improve the first floor of the Strand in record time, per our agreement with the property's private developer.
That's where the story changes.
Once that money was raised as proof of concept, we entered lease negotiations with the landlord. After some delays, we were presented with a lease that included terms we couldn't accept as an ethical use of donor money:
The lease required us to hand over $170,000 of donor money as a security deposit, wiping out 85% of our construction funds before a single hammer swung.
It required hiring an architect who was beholden to the developer, and paying them over $100,000 to design the cinema and set projected build costs.
It allowed the landlord to unilaterally decide we couldn't afford construction, cancel the lease, and keep the security deposit.
It barred the Cinema from ever discussing the project, funding, or contract terms publicly.
Put together, this would have let the development company force us to pay donor money to a conflicted firm, have that architect set an unaffordable construction price, then declare we couldn't afford it and keep our deposit. That would have been nearly $300,000 of donor and grant money leaving our community with nothing to show for it, and a gag order preventing us from explaining why.
Even so, we wanted to negotiate in good faith. We hired a lawyer and in July sent a counterproposal along more standard market terms: a three-month security deposit, normal restrictions on how it could be used, and confirmation that we'd hire our own architect.
We never received a response. On September 1, we received official word that the developer wasn't interested in negotiating, or in having Sleepy Hollow Cinema anchor the Strand project going forward.
This isn't the news we wanted to share with you. Our team pours itself into this project because we are dedicated to revitalizing downtown Sleepy Hollow and bringing an old movie theater back to life. For now, part of that dream is closed off to us.
But the Strand being off the table doesn't mean we're out of options. We have some promising alternatives in the works that would be a more responsible use of public and private donor money. We're not ready to announce those details yet, but here's what we can promise you:
Every dollar raised for our Capital Campaign goes towards our ongoing mission to acquire and build a permanent cinema in Sleepy Hollow. We’re committed to honoring our pledge to showcase your support through seat dedications, bricks, and signs. We’ll keep the Campaign donation page open as the more funding we have, the stronger position we will be in for future opportunities.
Sleepy Hollow Cinema isn't going anywhere. The Strand was onepossible home for us, but it was never the mission itself. We'll keep bringing film to our community through paid and free pop-up events in 10591. If you haven't made it to one yet, you'll have plenty of chances this fall: nearly 30 screenings in October, including our first-ever FrightFest student horror film festival.
We'll always be honest with you about our opportunities and our challenges.
Thank you for believing in us. The future is exciting. Let's build a movie theater!
Best,
Marc