The Sharon Plaza

Completed in 1928, the Sharon Plaza, formerly known as The Grant Lee Theater, was a focal point for the once thriving and incipient film industry in Fort Lee.  Located at the intersection of Abbott Boulevard and Columbia Avenue, The Grant Lee was situated at the stop for the Palisades Amusement Park Trolley car, which provided transportation services for residents of Fort Lee to the surrounding area.  The Grant Lee marked the meeting point where business and entertainment met.

In the 1970’s The Grant Lee began showing adult oriented fare.  This marked the low point in the theater’s history.  The building was let to degrade and the area began to lose its once storied past. 

By the mid to late 70’s, a group of partners purchased The Grant Lee seeking to re-establish it as the focal point it once was.  In the late 1970’s to early 80’s, The Grant Lee was renovated and renamed the Sharon Cinema.  Named after the newly born daughter of David Barouk, Sharon Cinema symbolized a new beginning for an area once rundown, and helped regain the luster it once possessed.

However, due to the competitive forces presented by the ever growing size of multiplex theaters, the Sharon Cinema was no longer able to compete as a stand alone theater.  By the late 1980’s the Sharon Cinema was converted to what it is now known as the Sharon Plaza.