New Yorkers who get their first look at — and taste of — the city’s first iPic cinema complex at the South Street Seaport on Friday might be awed if they’ve never been to one of iPic Entertainment’s 14 other destinations around the US.
Realty Check got a sneak peek at iPic in the landmark Fulton Market Building, which boasts eight screens and 501 seats. It opens to the public on Oct. 7 with showings of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” “The Birth of a Nation” and the much-anticipated “The Girl on the Train.”
Plush, reclining seats similar to those in a first-class airline cabin and food prepared by an award-winning chef that’s served as you watch a film, are far more upscale than even the fanciest of other cinemas in New York.
Via iPic.com and a dedicated app, customers can easily book showings — not only the movie and time but also exactly which seats. There are two seating options, Premium and Premium Plus. The former includes regular or chaise lounge seats; customers can bring food from an iPic Express counter to the seats.
Premium Plus means reclining leather seats built into pods with pillows, blankets and “unlimited free popcorn.” They’re arrayed in pairs separated by aisles, so customers can have pre-ordered meals and cocktails delivered to seats by “Ninja” servers who don’t block anyone’s view of the screen.
Membership programs both free and paid entitle users to various discounts, priority reservations and other benefits. Seats cost $14 to $29 depending on which level of service is chosen, as well as the day and time; weekends are more expensive.
Brooklyn-born Sherry Yard, the chief operating offer for iPic’s restaurant division, was Wolfgang Puck’s executive pastry chef for 20 years. She’s a Food Network star, the author of several cookbooks and a three-time James Beard Foundation award-winner.
The iPic kitchen, which would put many a restaurant’s to shame, will serve dishes meant to be eaten with the hands — “We won’t have any crackling cucharones [spoons],” Yard laughed. Choices range from soft, warm pretzels for $12 to New England lobster rolls for $21. There’s also a free-standing café called Tuck Tavern, which doesn’t require a movie ticket, on the third floor.
Pic is an anchor of the new South Street Seaport, which itself is an anchor of FiDi’s rejuvenated eastern portion — home to a critical cluster of new developments that include the Beekman Hotel and 70 Pine St., which was transformed into luxury apartments.
But it took five years for iPic Entertainment and Seaport developer Howard Hughes Corp. to make it a reality.
Although the Seaport now bustles with stores and small eateries, iPic’s 46,000-square-foot complex in the Fulton building — nearly half of the building’s total floor space — is the first permanent large element to be completed.
iPic Entertainment founder and Chief Executive Hamid Hashemi said, “It was a very complex project and further delayed by Hurricane Sandy.”
“The Fulton market used to be a four-story building. In order to accommodate screens and get the height you needed, you had to remove an entire floor,” Hashemi recalled.
Since the building is landmarked, “You couldn’t tear it down. You had to build a superstructure inside to hold the building up in order to remove one of the floors. Getting through all the approvals wasn’t easy.”
Howard Hughes Corp. CEO David R. Weinreb said, “We’re obviously very pleased to welcome Manhattan’s only iPic. I said from Day One that we wanted to provide the ultimate cinematic experience. It will be an attraction for all New York residents, not only from the neighborhood, as we continue the Seaport area transformation” — a project that includes a new Pier 17, and is estimated in the company’s most recent 10-Q SEC filing to cost $508 million.