9/6/2016
By Ivan Pereira
South Slope’s most notorious eyesore is about to get a Hollywood makeover.
The owners of Williamsburg’s Nitehawk Cinema announced Tuesday they will take over the Pavilion movie theater, located at 188 Prospect Park West, and spend $10 million to renovate it from the ground up, a spokeswoman said.
The theater will close in October and tentatively reopen by the fall of 2017 as the Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park. It will have seven screens, with in theater dining, two bars, a new atrium and a kitchen, according to the spokeswoman.
The New York Times first reported the announcement Tuesday. The exact date of the Pavilion’s closure hasn’t be revealed.
This will mark the first expansion for the Nitehawk, which opened in 2011 and offers in-theater dining with waiter services during screenings of independent, classic and cult films. The upgrades will come as a relief to Brooklyn moviegoers who have long expressed disgust with the Pavilion.
Despite various management changes and attempted upgrades, the theater has been beset by complaints over its uncleanliness, broken facilities and other signs of decay.
Last year, the theater’s former landlord proposed upgrading the cinema and converting the surrounding space into condos, drawing ire from the community. The condo plans have been scrapped, according to Nitehawk’s spokeswoman.
