ASSEMBLY HOUSING COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[Third Reprint]

SENATE, No. 3944

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 19, 2025

      The Assembly Housing Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 3944 (3R).

      As amended, this bill clarifies that holders of plenary retail consumption licenses for nonprofit art house movie theaters include disregarded entities of certain nonprofit corporations.   Specifically, the bill clarifies that nonprofit corporations eligible for the license include “disregarded entities” that are single-member limited liability corporations disregarded for federal income tax purposes pursuant to 26 C.F.R. Part 301.  Under current law, a plenary retail consumption license allows for the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the licensed premises.

      In addition, the amended bill allows a municipality to issue a plenary retail consumption license to an eligible business entity for use in connection with certain “community theaters.”  Under the bill, the license holder would be entitled to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the licensed premises only during specified times.  The bill defines “community theater” as a theater that is used for the purpose of showing performances of motion pictures, musical concerts, theatrical plays, dance recitals, literature readings or other artistic or cultural exhibitions and is owned and operated by an eligible business entity.

      Under the bill, the license may only be used in connection with a community theater in which the space or spaces within a premises used for showing performances:

· of musical concerts, theatrical plays, dance recitals, literature readings or other artistic or cultural exhibitions contain one or more stages with viewer seating areas having a total seating capacity of at least 50 persons but not more than 1,000 persons and do not contain any movie screens for showing performances of motion pictures;

· of motion pictures contain no more than three movie screens with viewer seating areas having a total seating capacity of at least 50 persons but not more than 600 persons; or

· having a total seating capacity of at least 50 persons but not more than 1,500 persons, containing at least one but not more than three movie screens for showing motion pictures, and containing at least one stage for showing musical concerts, theatrical plays, dance recitals, literature readings or other artistic or cultural exhibitions.  The seating capacity of the viewer seating areas located in the space or spaces with a stage or stages are to constitute at least 25 percent of the total seating capacity.

      As amended and reported by the committee, Senate Bill No. 3944 (3R) is identical to Assembly Bill No. 5125 (1R), as was also amended and reported by the committee on this date. 

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

· broaden the forms of events that are eligible for a consumption license to include "public entertainment events," defined to include sporting events, simulcasts, or other social, charitable, or athletic events;

· permit certain concessionaires to allocate a share of revenue to support or subsidize a theater’s performances or public entertainment events held at a licensed premises;

· clarify the eligibility for a consumption license of facilities that may be publicly-owned, but operated by a qualified entity; and

· adjust definitions subsections to order alphabetically, and make other technical changes.