TMCnet News
Three new multiplexes planned in Omaha testament to appeal(Omaha World-Herald (NE) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jul. 28--Marie Clifford is a fan of movies, especially when they're playing at the Westroads Mall. Clifford, owner of the Afternoon, a specialty store at the shopping center, said she and her employees were "thrilled out of our minds" when mall officials announced that a movie theater would be returning to Westroads in 2008. Theaters can be a huge boon, because they draw crowds that may show up early or dawdle afterward, spending money at neighboring stores and businesses. Developers often feel they must recruit a multiplex to their retail or residential projects to make them more attractive places to shop or live. For example, the group developing Midtown Crossing on land previously owned by Mutual of Omaha recently announced that a five-screen theater will be one of the anchors of its mixed-use development. Clifford's store is a longtime Westroads tenant. It was there before AMC, which had an eight-screen theater at the mall, left in December 1997. "I cannot tell you what a difference it made when the old theaters closed, and how wonderful it's going to be to have the new ones," Clifford said. Business on holidays such as Columbus Day and Veterans Day took a hit when the theaters closed, Clifford said. "When the bank workers and government employees had a holiday . . . they would come shop, have lunch, go to the movies and then shop some more. "When there were no movies, that all stopped, and they went to malls where there were," Clifford said. Developer Kirk Hanson of Omaha's DKC Development Ventures LLC had several reasons for adding a 14-screen, 45,000-square-foot theater to a shopping center his firm built in Normal, Ill. For one thing, the theater was a good fit for the overall market, he said. It was also a draw, not only for patrons but for retailers. "We felt the theater was the only way to really land the national restaurants to our projects. So it was a key part of developing the entire piece," he said. For both atmosphere and the bottom line, a theater can prove helpful. "It creates an entertainment feel to your development," Hanson said. "But secondly, it increases the hours of the shopping center, which ultimately increases the traffic and the business for everything in the shopping center." Bill Barstow, owner of Main Street Theatres, is bringing a 12-screen multiplex to the Shoppes at Aksarben Village project near 63rd and Center Streets. "One of the buzzwords . . . is making something a 'destination,'" Barstow said. "There's got to be a reason for you to go someplace. "The reality is people like to be around other people, and they like to be around other things, and they like to be places where things are happening. . . .We can be people magnets. We can bring an awful lot of people past the front doors of an awful lot of businesses." Theaters are key in attracting people, agreed John Bacon of Red Development, which had planned a theater at Village Pointe, 168th Street and West Dodge Road, from the outset. "They provide an entertainment draw to a shopping center, which is an important element of a lifestyle center," he said. He said theaters attract a diverse group of people, including families, young people and senior citizens, and provide a draw during traditionally slow shopping times. But there are disadvantages to adding a theater, said Hanson, the Omaha developer. Space used for theater parking could be used for an additional restaurant or store, he said. "It just has to be laid out on probably the most inexpensive part of your project. You don't want to put it right up front." Bacon also said a theater can lead to loitering, although rules such as Village Pointe's parental escort policy can minimize that problem. Midtown Crossing was always going to have a movie theater complex, said Keith Bawolek, executive vice president ECI Investment Advisors. With the fitness center and 600 residential units, adding a theater helped create the type of "lifestyle community" the developers desired, Bawolek said. "It's a trend across the country, this new urbanism, where people are moving back to the central core. And in order to entice them to do that and make it attractive to these people, they want to have amenities nearby," he said. "That's restaurants, it's theater, it's entertainment, it's things that they want to do." The theater, he said, was essential. "To create that lifestyle, the after-five and the weekend vibrancy, was just critical to what we wanted to do." To see more of the Omaha World-Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.omaha.com. Copyright (c) 2007, Omaha World-Herald, Neb. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |