Lynbrook Regal movie theater to undergo final inspections

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After a series of delays, the state-of-the-art Regal movie theater, on Merrick Road in Lynbrook, is entering the final round of inspections, but a tentative date for its grand opening has not been released.
“It’s getting close,” Mayor Alan Beach said at a public meeting on Monday. “There’s been a problem with the standpipe system with the movie theater.”
The standpipe system is a series of pipes that extend from the fire hydrant outside the theater and connect the water supply to the building’s sprinkler system. Last month, representatives of New York American Water informed Lynbrook Building Department Superintendent Brian Stanton that the volume of water reaching the theater’s sprinkler system was inadequate.
However, Stanton said the problems were addressed and the system eventually did pass the tests. Village officials were hoping to open the theater on April 24, but after the latest set of delays, there is no timetable for its completion.
Stanton said the Fire Department tested the pipe on May 1, but the county fire marshal still has to inspect it further. He will conduct tests to the sprinkler system and the fire and smoke alarm systems, Stanton added. He said there were minor modifications done to the sprinkler system, and the fire marshal will soon inspect the sprinkler heads before moving onto the smoke and fire alarms.

“The actual work on the interior of the building is pretty much complete,” Stanton said. “So once we get past the fire marshal, that is one of our final hurdles, so to speak.”
Last month, John Kilpatrick, NYAW’s engineering manager, said that the water flow was first tested two years ago when the project began, and the sprinkler system was designed to meet those specifications. The system was made to pump 1,000 gallons of water per minute. Kilpatrick noted that when NYAW sent a crew to test the hydrant in early April, the pressure was higher than in 2016, pumping about 1,800 gallons per minute.
The $21 million theater, which has 13 auditoriums, has faced many setbacks because of weather and other delays. The initial target date for opening was around the holiday season, but it was then pushed back to February and March, then April 24. Village officials are now hoping for a late May or early June opening, but were not able to set a date.
The Syosset-based Blumenfeld Development Group oversaw the project. In January, Project Superintendent Marc Losquadro, of All Building Construction, the general contractor for Blumenfeld, took the Herald on a tour of the facility, and detailed some of the delays his 100-member crew had faced.
“With masonry, you’re limited to your weather conditions on when you can get out there,” he explained. “That was one of the issues with delays, absolutely.”