CITY OF NEWBURGH – Cracks spread like fingers on one window.

Wires hang from the tile-less ceiling.

Dust covers everything.

Decay has taken over in the roughly two decades since anyone ordered a meal at the 1940s-era diner that sits at the corner of South Robinson Avenue and Dickson Street in the City of Newburgh.

But the rundown structure is about to start a new life as a prop in an upcoming movie to be shot in the city – all after a bidding war that drew interest from around the state and from as far away as North Carolina and Virginia.

Visconti Bus Service, which owns the property on which the diner sits, was flooded with calls after offering the diner for free to anyone willing to assume the burden of removing the gutted structure. The winner is a local film producer and the director of a feature film shot in the city.

The eatery, whose façade was once hidden under a layer of red brick, has served food under at least three different names: Cy’s 9W Grill; The Family Diner; Lisi’s Diner.

“The diner’s cool,” said Fred Visconti, owner of Visconti Bus Service. “I’m sure my father and friends had dinner at that diner.”

On Tuesday, Visconti discussed the diner with Giancarlo Lorusso, who produces films with writer and director Robert Fontaine Jr. Fontaine owns a carriage house in Newburgh and his film “Mi America” just debuted at theaters in New York and Los Angeles.

In his office, Visconti held up a writing pad that represented “pages and pages” of inquiries from an array of suitors after news of the free diner spread via social media.

A man from upstate Germantown wanted to take the front of the diner and attach it to another building, and a man from North Carolina who restores old diners also called. A woman from Virginia called and wanted to turn the diner into a bed-and-breakfast, Visconti said.

“I’ve got pages and pages of people interested,” he said.

The diner also drew some interest from Ted Doering, the Newburgh-based motorcycle parts magnate and founder of the Motorcyclepedia Musuem, said Lorusso, who manages the movie soundstage Doering opened in the city.

In the end, he and Fontaine will use the diner for a coming-of-age movie based on a script Fontaine wrote two decades ago. The script calls for a diner to be filmed in its current state and then “dressed up” to represent a working eatery, Lorusso said.

After filming they are considering restoring the diner to working condition, he said.

“This is like finding a hidden treasure,” Lorusso said.

lsparks@th-record.com