The final credits were set to roll at the Providence Place Mall’s Showcase Cinemas by Jan. 31. But the court-appointed receiver for the mall wants to end the show early.
The move was prompted by National Amusements — Showcase’s parent company — opting not to renew its existing lease for Providence Place Mall Cinemas 16 after the Jan. 31, 2026 expiration, Mark Russo, the court receiver, wrote in a Sept. 19 motion in Providence County Superior Court, first reported by Providence Business News.
Rather than wait out the final months under the existing operator, Russo has asked Superior Court Judge Brian Stern for permission to break the lease with National Amusements and find a new company to run the 16-screen movie theater.
A hearing on the proposal is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday in Providence County Superior Court.
The proposed swap comes as part of the nearly yearlong efforts to shore up and revitalize the downtown shopping center, which has struggled to retain its luster amid changing shopping habits and loss of flagship stores, some of which were never replaced. In October 2024, the property was placed into court-appointed receivership after a group of private lenders alleged they were owed $259 million from a 2011 mortgage loan taken out by the property owner, Brookfield Properties.
Russo and his former law practice partner, John Dorsey — now a federal bankruptcy judge who has since been removed from the receivership case — were brought in by the court to manage the transition. Over the last 11 months, the pair of West Warwick attorneys brought in a new management company, added security and began investments to repair aging infrastructure.
In July, they secured Stern’s permission to advertise the mall for sale to new owners, with plans for a listing to hit the market in September.
As of Monday, the property had not yet been publicly listed online by Jones Lang LaSalle, the Chicago firm hired to serve as the broker.
Russo in an email Monday, dismissed concerns that losing Showcase could hurt a future sale, or other revitalization efforts.
“I’m not concerned at this point,” Russo said. “I feel good about the likelihood of the cinema space continuing to be an entertainment and movie venue for our patrons.”
He did not respond to follow-up questions regarding other tenants’ leases and the pending sale listing.
Russo’s court motion seeks to retain the equipment and furniture in the top-floor movie theater, giving National Amusements first rights in court to be reimbursed for the fair market value.
National Amusements and Showcase did not respond to inquiries for comment Monday. The Massachusetts-based media company has run the movie theater in downtown Providence since 2003, buying the adjacent IMAX Theatre in 2008.
The 128,000-square-foot cinema paid 9.8% of the mall’s annual rent as of January 2024 — the second largest contributor after Boscov’s — according to a June 2024 report by ratings agency KBRA. In the same report, issued five months before the receivership, KBRA downgraded all six classes of its ratings for the mall’s commercial mortgage-backed security because of the heightened credit risk posed by the past due mortgage loan.
The 1.4-million-square-foot shopping center opened in 1999 after a series of delays and changes to financing and development terms. The final funding package for the $460 million project featured a state bond and a tax treaty with the city of Providence. The state deal used mall sales tax revenue to repay the debt on the bond that paid for construction. The state made its final $73 million payment on the bond in 2019.
The 30-year tax treaty with the city of Providence is set to end in 2028. Under the current agreement, the mall pays $500,000 a year in city property taxes. If taxed at fiscal 2025 city commercial rates, the property would be paying nearly $24.9 million in taxes based on its 2024 city tax-assessed value of $708.7 million.
The pandemic has been widely blamed for the demise of malls nationwide. But in Providence, many consider the 2019 departure of founding anchor Nordstrom as the beginning of the mall’s decline. As of May 2021, the mall and attached parking garage were valued $240 million — less than half the $558 appraisal when the mortgage loan was secured in 2011.
Meanwhile, movie theaters have struggled to find an audience in the post-pandemic era, with three-quarters of adults opting to watch new movies via streaming services rather than in a theater, according to a Sept. 25 survey from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Those surveyed cited convenience and cost as reasons why they opted to stream from home rather than head to a theater.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment on Monday.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
