For Sale (again): One Rockland landmark

ByAnthony Ronzio

Flagship cuts the Strand Cinema loose after just a month of ownership. An observer says Flagship never planned to reopen the theater.

ROCKLAND (Jan 22): Until the middle of last week, signs on the historic Strand Theater on Rockland's Main Street asked passersby to await details of its grand renovation and reopening.

A new sign on Thursday asked anyone interested in the old theater to please make an offer.

This week, the Strand's new owner, Flagship Cinemas of Everett, Mass., made public the company's desire to sell the theater, abandoning plans to refurbish the nearly 80-year-old theater into a complement of their modern multiplex facility in Thomaston.

John Crowley, president of Flagship Cinemas, told k2Bh in December that the condition of the theater was far worse than he anticipated. He never set foot in the Strand before buying it, he said.

Crowley described the theater's equipment as "something out of the dark ages," and further claimed that one of its speakers had been blown since 1959.

"It's so far beyond what people are used to in a modern theater," he said in December. "We're talking bad, we're talking really bad."

The Strand's previous owner, Peter Vivian, said last week that he never had any problems with the theater's equipment, and that whatever Flagship wanted to do with it was their prerogative.

"It was a fair deal for both of us," he said. "It's a good, viable, theater." Vivian claimed that everything in the theater was fully operational, to the best of his knowledge.

Other local theater owners are not surprised that Flagship decided to cease plans to reopen the Strand.

"They bought them out to put them out of business," said Michael Hurley, owner of the Colonial Theater in Belfast.

Hurley said that before he or any other theater owner would consider purchasing the Strand, they would have to take a close look at any possible sale restrictions imposed by Flagship. It wouldn't be in Flagship's best interest, he added, to sell the building and put a competitor into business.

The cost of renovating old theaters is also high, Hurley said. He estimated that refurbishing the Strand, with all the modern technology, could cost up to $400,000.

Vivian, of New Jersey, purchased the theater in 1990 from its original owners, the Dondis family. He owns other movie houses in New Jersey, and said he sold the Strand in order to concentrate on running those businesses closer to his home.

Sale documents indicated Vivian received $265,000 from Flagship for the theater. Crowley was unavailable for comment about the sale.

This article first appeared January 22, 2002 at villagesoup.com.