Luxury, Innovation, and Popcorn? Yes, Please.
On this Trending Tuesday episode of The Debbie Nigro Show, I’m spilling the popcorn on a jaw-dropping new addition to one of my longtime favorite iconic hotels, the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Shawn Nayyar, the hotel’s new General Manager, joined me in studio to talk about the Townsend Cinema, a first-of-its-kind 40-seat luxury movie theater built right inside the hotel—a concept developed by Monoplex and Trinity Investments, now brought to life at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich.
“We’re the first in the country to have this kind of cinema experience inside a hotel—and the response has been incredible.” – Shawn Nayyar
You can sip cocktails, eat gourmet truffle popcorn, and watch first-run movies like Superman and Fantastic Four—in heated recliners!
(I’m a heated seat girl. I’m all in!” LOL)
Why It’s a Big Deal:
- First-run movies play the same day as nationwide theaters.
- Heated leather recliners, Dolby surround sound & a full menu.
- Drinks & gourmet snacks from the newly renovated café and bar.
- Revitalizes underused hotel space
- Draws both locals & travelers
- It’s already increasing traffic and revenue across hotel services
Fun Fact: The luxury theater was once just a rarely used auditorium.
“This idea is going to revolutionize unused hotel space across the country—and maybe the world.” – Debbie Nigro
Peek Behind the Scenes:
- Shawn Nayyar has managed 15+ hotels and relocated from Dallas, Texas, to lead the $40M transformation of the Greenwich Hyatt.
- The property still retains nods to its Condé Nast publishing days, with engraved pillars featuring iconic magazine titles. Before becoming a hotel, the property housed Conde Nast’s printing presses, which produced magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and House and Garden
- The atrium is filled with live plants, giving a “feel like you’re outside, even in winter” vibe.
- Private rentals available for birthday parties, corporate events—even pool rentals!
Catch a Flick or Book a Stay:
- Movie listings and tickets →TownsendBarandCinema.com
- Hotel info → HyattRegencyGreenwich.com
Enjoy this podcast of the fun live radio interview on The Debbie Nigro Show with Shawn Nayyar the new GM of the Hyatt Regency Greenwich. If you’d rather read than listen the transcript of the podcast is below.
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:
It’s time for The Debbie Nigro Show with Debbie Nigro, who says she’s still a babe, or at least she thinks she still is. That’s right, attitude is everything, and Debbie’s delusionally young. No one sees the glass of Cabernet half full like Debbie. She’s fresh air with a magnetic flair.
0:00:20
(Speaker 1)
Some day has arrived, and as far as she’s concerned, it’s time to roll.
Oh, I hope you’re not around for when I’m making up that face these days. It takes a lot of artillery. I was reading this morning, Jamie Lee Curtis is like that’s it she’s had it with all the Botox with all the Hollywood she thinks it’s genocide it’s horrible I’m like I like her that’s good anyway you know youth is in the heart in the spirit it’s how you live it it’s how it’s why you show up and here on the
0:01:17
(Speaker 1)
Debbie Nigro Show.
I am drawn to great spirits cool personalities and definitely innovators and today is Trending Tuesday. So I happened to catch a story that I was like jaw-dropped about. I’m like, what am I reading here? The Hyatt Regency in Greenwich, Connecticut where I broadcast live from is a very special place.
0:01:40
(Speaker 1)
It was once the Condé Nast headquarters for all of the publishing industry and for years and years, I have been going there for various reasons. Once, you know, once every couple of months, I would be there for events, for no reason, for brunch, for just popping by, right, over the course of years. So I knew they were going through a big renovation. I was excited to see what was going to come of that. And then I read about the fact they put in a 40-something seat luxury movie theater inside the hotel.
0:02:10
(Speaker 1)
I was like, well, that’s innovative. So I did more homework and I found out all about it. And it’s called the Townsend Cinema, brand new 40-seat luxury movie theater inside the hotel, inside the hotel. It was developed in partnership with Monoplex and a very cool entrepreneur who also partnered with Trinity Investments and then they got the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich to say, yes, we will be the first place in the entire
0:02:37
(Speaker 1)
planet, actually the United States anyway, to put this in.
And so today I invited the general manager, the brand new shiny general manager, Shawn Nayyar, now relocated from Texas in the Dallas area, to join me in the studio to talk about this very unique scenario there. Hello Shawn. Hello Debbie, good morning. How are you? I’m so happy you came to join me in the
0:03:01
(Speaker 1)
studio. Yes, thank you for inviting me. Yes, and you, Shawn, I cold called him is what I did. You know, I make I make some really warm cold calls when I want to and I cold called him because I said, look, I you don’t know me. I don’t know you but I’m quick study here.
0:03:16
(Speaker 1)
I’m quick study. You’ve got something very special. I’d like to come see it introduce myself. myself I have a good feeling that I could help people find out about this because if it is what I think it is this is very unique so thank you for having me and I knew I knew the minute I met you I go he’s my kind of guy he’s fun right thank you Sean pleasure Debbie yeah so great meeting you thank you um have you done radio before no this is my first time I want you to know something
0:03:42
(Speaker 1)
I major in radio virgins I’m the queen of getting somebody into the studio the first time and then they love it and they want to do it more So I’m happy to have you sitting next to me You’re here from Dallas, Texas, correct? Okay relocating to Greenwich, Connecticut Spearhead the future of the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich, which is an iconic property. Talk a little bit about the property and then we’ll talk about the movie theater.
0:04:08
(Speaker 2)
Hyatt Regency is a great hotel. It’s a Greenwich landmark, well-known over the years and has a great reputation. And when I got an opportunity to come and
0:04:22
(Speaker 1)
run the hotel, I couldn’t miss it. No, no. Have you always been in the hotel business?
0:04:27
(Speaker 2)
I’ve always been in the hotel business, grew up in the hotel business, and that’s what I love to do. It’s a hobby and getting paid for.
0:04:34
(Speaker 1)
Oh, neat. Well, the same with me with radio. It’s like, I love doing it, right? So we’re sharing our passions. The movie theater inside a hotel first of its kind in the country. Talk about how the deal came to pass like who contacted you
0:04:50
(Speaker 2)
how this go down, you know after the covid as you know, people stop going to those big theaters. They were scared and then how do we know wait so monoplex thought of let’s scale it down and put it in the hotels where there is a lot of traffic. And when we heard about it and we thought
0:05:13
(Speaker 2)
this will be a great opportunity, Greenwich doesn’t have any cinema of its own, and what a better way to tie in with the community, bring the community back to the classic Greenwich Hotel where a lot of people grew up and had their events, their anniversaries, marriages, bar mitzvahs, everything.
0:05:34
(Speaker 1)
When my daughter was little and we’d be here in the dead of winter because everybody’d be like getting freaked out they were inside so long we would just drive up there to to spend time because it was open it felt like you were in an open-air garden it’s a very unique space spend time because it was open. It felt like you were in an open air garden. It’s a very unique space inside.
0:05:47
(Speaker 2)
Yes, it was totally turned. It’s a luxury, great recliners, heated seats.
0:05:54
(Speaker 1)
Oh, yeah, this is great. So the guy who created this concept, am I saying his name right? Ray Seok? Seok, how do you say? S-E-O-K.
0:06:03
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, Seok from South Korea.
0:06:05
(Speaker 1)
Right. So he founded Monoplex and his concept was to transform underutilized spaces like hotel spaces into vibrant high-end cinema experience opportunities to the guests and the public in each community. And I thought, wow, that is out of the box. Monoplex, were you flown to see how it were?
0:06:27
(Speaker 1)
How did you see it first?
0:06:29
(Speaker 2)
Well, they brought in the demos, and we saw what it was like. And we were attracted to it, and we knew it’s going to work in our community.
0:06:38
(Speaker 1)
Absolutely. First thing people say to me is, oh, it must be very expensive.
0:06:42
(Speaker 2)
No, not at all. It’s not more than any average theater in the cities or any other big city.
0:06:48
(Speaker 1)
Amazing. And what’s cool is you’ve also renovated the bar and the cafe area so people can take cocktails and their food into the movie theater and sit in these big beautiful chairs with tables. I was like blown away. I was like, wow, I can’t wait to come here.
0:07:03
(Speaker 2)
Really? Yeah, we have an open date for a few weeks and guests love it. You know, they go to our Glenys coffee shop to get popcorn and gourmet truffle popcorn before they go to the theater. They get their drinks from the bar and then they come back and have dinner at the bar as a family
0:07:20
(Speaker 1)
and friends. Yeah, it’s nice. So there’s Dolby surround sound. The recliners have heated seats. They’re heated? Yes. Oh that’s gonna come in handy. I only buy certain car vehicles if they have a heated seat. That’s one of my greatest things in my car. Do you have a heated car seat? I do. You’re gonna need it. I don’t think it’s business. It doesn’t get this cold the way it gets up here in Texas. No, I don’t think so, right? And then it’s right off the hotel atrium.
0:07:51
(Speaker 1)
So I imagine you’re thinking this is also going to drive a lot of restaurant business and extra cash that you didn’t, right?
0:07:56
(Speaker 2)
And that’s what we are seeing. Guests love it. They come in. The kids will watch the movie. The parents are at Townsend Bar and Grill, which has a new menu, new beverage program, new wine selection. And then after the theater, they all have dinner as a family in Townsend Bar and Restaurant.
0:08:15
(Speaker 1)
Or before, right?
0:08:16
(Speaker 6)
Or before.
0:08:17
(Speaker 1)
If you want to get everybody to bed afterwards. Tell me about, in terms of the movies, Superman is playing. How are you able to get first run movies in your hotel?
0:08:27
(Speaker 2)
Yes, these are first run movies. When they’re released nationwide, they release here the same day.
0:08:33
(Speaker 1)
That’s crazy.
0:08:34
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, and we are working with a national distributor who works with us, and these are the first run movies. We have fantastic four lined up, and then, so anytime it’s out there, it’s right in Townsend Bar and Cinema.
0:08:49
(Speaker 1)
And this is started, this just opened in the middle of July. So this is very, very new. Yes. What are you seeing so far?
0:08:55
(Speaker 2)
The guests are loving it. Our traffic has gone up and weekends we have four shows, four to five shows. Weekdays two shows and very very good response.
0:09:07
(Speaker 1)
Wow, so how many times a day during the weekdays do you have?
0:09:11
(Speaker 2)
Weekdays is twice, two shows a day and weekends is four to five shows.
0:09:15
(Speaker 1)
Oh this is amazing. What is the website for people to go see what’s playing and to get tickets and whatever? Just go on to Townsend Cinema and they will take you to it. Townsendcinema.com. Okay, I’m going to ask you to stay along. I’m with Sean Nayar.
0:09:29
(Speaker 1)
He’s the general manager of the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich. I want to hear a little bit more about the $40-something million renovation, that’s a lot of money, that happened at the hotel. You got a little more time for me? Yes, of course. Okay, cool. So yeah, stay tuned. You’re listening to The Debbie Nygro Show, always a pleasure to bring you the latest, greatest, first. Today I’m in studio with
0:09:49
(Speaker 1)
Sean Nayar, the new general manager of the Greenwich Hyatt Regency, which has just went through a 40-something million dollar renovation. The reason I invited Sean and the reason I got so excited about what’s happening there at the hotel is I happened to read they were the first in the country to put in what’s called a monoplex luxury movie theater right inside the hotel. That’s correct. Running first-run movies like Superman and the only difference is you get to sit in like these plush plush recliners with pillows like crazy stuff and enjoy the food and the drink that’s,
0:10:26
(Speaker 1)
you know, right outside the doors of the movie theater. So, Sean, we’re gonna talk again with you. I’m so happy you’re here, and thank you for being so warm about coming. I love it.
0:10:36
(Speaker 2)
Thank you, Debbie.
0:10:37
(Speaker 1)
Yeah, you’re a crazy hotel entrepreneur. You’ve been traveling around running hotels for your whole life, correct? That is correct. Oh my gosh. How many hotels have you run?
0:10:47
(Speaker 2)
I run more than 15.
0:10:49
(Speaker 1)
Oh, and you’re moving your family up from Dallas, Texas.
0:10:54
(Speaker 2)
That is correct.
0:10:54
(Speaker 1)
Any minute. You’ve been up here in advance, of course, spearheading this whole thing. At what point did you get involved with the hotel? And then in terms of the renovation, that seems to have been going on for quite some time. So just talk about that.
0:11:09
(Speaker 2)
The hotel has 374 rooms, bar, restaurant, a large banquet and meeting space, pool, full service health club, and now the cinema, and had not been renovated for a while. So our owners have put in $40 million. And now it is brand new. The rooms are just wonderful, beautiful, guests love it. The public spaces, the restaurant, the bar,
0:11:35
(Speaker 2)
the fitness center, everything has been renovated.
0:11:38
(Speaker 1)
I said to you when I came by to check out the movie theater, I said, you know, I know that Resort Pass allows you to rent your time in that pool. That really works out in the movie theater. I said, you know, I know that resort pass allows you to rent your time in that pool for the you know, that really works out in the wintertime. He’s like, yeah, so that’s that’s true, right?
0:11:50
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, that’s true. You can rent the pool for a private event. And you can also rent as our cinema for private events.
0:11:56
(Speaker 1)
I like that idea.
0:11:57
(Speaker 2)
Events, parties, birthday parties, presentations, corporate presentations, we have a corporate presentation who they have booked the entire cinema for their company event.
0:12:09
(Speaker 1)
You’re laughing every day. This is a great move on your part. Do you like Greenwich?
0:12:13
(Speaker 2)
Oh, I love Greenwich.
0:12:15
(Speaker 1)
Happy to welcome you, because it’s a very beautiful place in the world. It’s a gifted place, don’t you think? Just the flowers, the architecture, the people, very interesting people. They’re so warm, believe it or not, and you might not think so if you didn’t come from this area, but boy, there’s really a mix of people who grew up here, whose
0:12:33
(Speaker 1)
families were here forever, and people who’ve chosen to move here because of quality of
0:12:36
(Speaker 2)
life, right? I really enjoyed it. Years ago, I used to live in New York City, So it’s like an extension, but it’s so different and people are really warm and courteous.
0:12:46
(Speaker 1)
It’s fair. I call it very civil and compared to traffic and commotion. You know, like I can have everything you want right here without having to deal with a lot of traffic and commotion. The hotel was a Condé Nast headquarters forever and the history of Condé Nast and the publishing business is, you know, there’s iconic. What do you know about that in terms of what’s still, you know, recognizable at the hotel from their time there?
0:13:09
(Speaker 2)
You know, if you come drive into the hotel, you still have that original pillars there, which have the engraving for all the magazine houses, the magazines which were published there.
0:13:19
(Speaker 1)
Amazing.
0:13:20
(Speaker 2)
And it has a lot of history and a lot of guests relate to it.
0:13:23
(Speaker 1)
Yes, I always, I’m sort of amazed that it stays there. And I try and think of what happened is the magazine business was huge, huge. And you know, digital has changed all that, but still is just in a different format. What’s on the property, around the property
0:13:37
(Speaker 1)
that you saw that you’re like, oh, wow.
0:13:40
(Speaker 2)
It is our central atrium. Yes. You can come here around. Yes. You can come here around and it is just beautiful with live plants.
0:13:48
(Speaker 1)
That’s it. You feel like you’re outside inside.
0:13:50
(Speaker 2)
Outside inside and even especially in the winter I think it’s going to be nice. It’s all snow and ice outside and inside it’s a beautiful atrium with live plants and we host that, we use that space for private events and parties as well.
0:14:06
(Speaker 1)
As a general manager of a hotel, you have a lot of pieces of the puzzle to worry about. Like who’s watering those plants, for example? You know, like that’s one of the millions of things you think about every day. How does your head work inside?
0:14:18
(Speaker 1)
Like what’s going on in your head all day long?
0:14:20
(Speaker 2)
You know, I have a great team I rely on, and it’s a huge team effort. There’s 160 of us who take care of our guests. Everybody, it works like a machine.
0:14:31
(Speaker 1)
Wow. So when you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing in your head?
0:14:36
(Speaker 2)
I want to go to work and see the people, meet the people. It’s my associates, our employees, our guests, and every day is a different day.
0:14:45
(Speaker 1)
Have people been there for a long time that have worked there?
0:14:48
(Speaker 2)
Yes. We have many associates who have been there for 30 years, 35 years. Our chef had an anniversary of 25 years the other day, and that’s the old-timers who make it happen. It’s something –
0:15:02
(Speaker 1)
And get our foundation. There’s something to be said about employees who are excited to stay at the same place and contribute to the success of the bigger picture, right? It means you’re treating them very well.
0:15:12
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, we have to. We take care of our staff so they can take care of the guests who come.
0:15:18
(Speaker 1)
And if every company figured that out, the world would be a simpler, better place, don’t you think? People are so worried about customer service and you you know, how are people… Take care of your people and the people will take care of your people, right?
0:15:28
(Speaker 2)
That’s right.
0:15:29
(Speaker 1)
Yeah. So what am I leaving out here? Is there anything you want me to know, the people to know in the community, the world at large? Because I think what you’re doing there is very loud, of course, for the local New York, Connecticut market, but even louder for someone trying to make a decision on where to stay when they come into the area. And I imagine there are weddings and graduations and all kinds of reasons and, you know, funerals, sadly, why people have to come to this area of business and stay. What would make them choose you first?
0:15:58
(Speaker 2)
I imagine. I think it’s a one-stop shop. You can come, you can stay, you can bring your family with you. We have pool, we have restaurant, bar, coffee shop, cinema.
0:16:10
(Speaker 1)
Yeah, darn good cup of coffee too. I judge a place by how good their coffee is by the way. That was a great cup of coffee. I don’t know what brand you’re using but I go, oh I could come just for the coffee. This is good. I’m a coffee snob.
0:16:21
(Speaker 2)
Connecticut Brewer, roaster from whom we buy our coffee. Oh.
0:16:25
(Speaker 1)
When you do a renovation at that magnitude and you are a historic landmark, do you try and procure stuff from the community, from local vendors?
0:16:35
(Speaker 2)
Always. We try to add elements, local elements into the design theme. And then we like to work with local vendors as much as possible. So it’s, we want to share with local vendors as much as possible. So it’s, we want to share with the community.
0:16:47
(Speaker 1)
That’s great. Are you always this happy? Because you’re my kind of like joyful, delusionally happy guy. I mean, it seems like you and I would hang out and have a lot of fun together. Is your nature this way?
0:16:59
(Speaker 2)
Yes. I love what I do. And you know, it’s just great to just meet new people every day. Like today I’m on your show for the first time.
0:17:08
(Speaker 1)
This is big. Are you going to tell everybody you’re on the radio for the first time? I’ll let everybody know because we will take this interview, which is how we do it in the modern day world of radio, and we will make it into a podcast and put it out on all the major podcast platforms and share it in social media. I will tell you in the radio trades this morning, I did read because radio has had a lot of challenges over the years with being kind
0:17:30
(Speaker 1)
of pushed to the left of the word podcast and what a podcast is for your edification if you don’t know is radio on demand. It’s that simple. But the lingo of the younger generation is podcast. But radio, local radio, which I use and also make it national radio, drives interest to people’s websites and to purchases. And there was a big story actually this week about how Amazon Prime Day did really well with their radio driving purchases. They were like, wow, look at this. So it’s a very vital
0:18:03
(Speaker 1)
still medium and I’m happy to share it with you today to get the word out about this new innovation. The monoplex idea in Hyatt, as it now is the first in the country. Is this something Hyatt around the country may consider? Since you led the path led the way here?
0:18:20
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, we are we are managed by HCI hotels, which is based out of Norwalk, and we manage 100 hotels. Yeah. And Trinity has many, many hotels in the US as well, and we are definitely considering putting it in Orlando, Hawaii to start with in our hotels, and then I’m sure with the success there is going to get more popular and more and more hotels will opt for this.
0:18:46
(Speaker 1)
It’s a very, very interesting use of unutilized space. It’s a very big hotel and you had to figure out, you know, what to do. What was that room? Was it just a meeting room?
0:18:54
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, it was an auditorium. Yeah. And we didn’t think there was that much demand for an auditorium. So I think it was just a natural progression into a cinema and it’s just working out really wonderful.
0:19:06
(Speaker 1)
That’s amazing. Okay. So once again, if you’re just tuning in, we’re wrapping up a terrific interview with Sean Nayar, the new general manager at the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich, moving himself and his whole family up here from Dallas, Texas. Can’t wait to get started living the full-time life up here, but has been coming for quite some time as part of the new regime which will spearhead the future of this $40 million renovation at the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich. There is a brand new, only one of a kind in the US, bespoke movie theater called a Monoplex
0:19:36
(Speaker 1)
now inside of the Hyatt which is amazing, running first run movies. Superman’s here right now.
0:19:42
(Speaker 2)
What’s the next movie coming? After Superman we have Fantastic Four.
0:19:46
(Speaker 1)
Fantastic Four. Four.
0:19:48
(Speaker 5)
Yeah.
0:19:48
(Speaker 2)
And then we are going to have Freaker Friday.
0:19:51
(Speaker 1)
Oh, I’m coming for that. Freaker Friday, yeah. I can’t wait to come to the movies there. I actually put up on my Instagram, by the way, if you want to see a walkthrough. I did a walkthrough because I was so curious. I just drove up there. I’m like, hi Sean, I’m Debbie. I gotta see this. And I went through with my camera just to show everybody what it looked like and I’m really excited to go back. So again, showings are twice a day on the weekdays, four times on the weekends. Go to TownsendTheatre.com to find out the information. It’s the same cost as any other theater. I was laughing, I senior rates you got a senior discounts over there and for kids
0:20:26
(Speaker 1)
it is it any discount for kids yes we do how good we have children
0:20:30
(Speaker 2)
12 men under and senior citizen this rate as well
0:20:34
(Speaker 1)
how good because the only time it pays to get old is for these tickets which are working out sometimes I keep forgetting I’m a senior I’m like I get a discount and then I act delusional young I’m like I’m not that old anyway Sean Nayar thank you so much for being on the show the website for the Hyatt Regency if you’d like to stay there if somebody’s coming into town is Hyatt Regency dot com is Hyatt doc is it
0:20:57
(Speaker 1)
Hyatt Regency Greenwich Greenwich comm and then the Townsend theater has its own website and yeah I encourage you all to come take a ride up, go see what’s going on. And I want to commend you in the hospitality industry, all of you, you and Ray and the Trinity folks for having the foresight to take a shot on this,
0:21:18
(Speaker 1)
because I think it’s going to revolutionize untapped physical spaces in hotels around the country and around the world.
0:21:24
(Speaker 2)
Thank you you Debbie.
0:21:25
(Speaker 1)
All right, Shawn Nayyar, you have a great day. By the way, let’s give Sean a round of applause, Bobby, because this is his first ever radio interview and I love doing the first, I like being first, right? So congratulations.
0:21:36
(Speaker 2)
Thank you, Debbie.
0:21:37
(Speaker 1)
There you go, Shawn. Have a great day, everybody.
