By Jonathan Friedman
September 10, 2009 -- The City of Santa Monica could soon have its first new movie theater in two decades, one that includes the modern perks of 3-D and IMAX technology, along with stadium seating, state-of-the-art projection technology and top-of-the-line theater sound systems.
The City Council discussed the proposal to transform a Downtown public parking structure at 4th Street and Arizona Avenue into a cinema complex during its meeting Tuesday evening.
Downtown Santa Monica is home to four movie theaters, including three on the Third Street Promenade, largely credited with helping to revitalize the dying strip 20 years ago.
But none of the theaters contains the state-of-the-art technologies featured in newer venues in surrounding communities, which City officials believe may have contributed to a 30 percent decrease in attendance in the past decade.
“There’s no doubt in anybody‘s mind that having movie theaters on the Promenade really gave life to that area and allowed the development of what is now just a fabulous community space,” said City Council member Gleam Davis said at the meeting.
“Unfortunately there’s been a lot of change in the movie industry. There are a lot more 3-D movies, digital projection. And the theaters we have now aren’t capable of displaying those kinds of movies.”
Santa Monica last year solicited proposals for the development of the City-owned parking structure into a mixed-use project that would include a movie theater. It received three proposals, and considered those from AMC and ArcLIght Cinema Company.
City staff favors the proposal from AMC, which calls for approximately 2,000 seats and 12 screens in a 75,000-square-foot-building, which would feature, along with the various modern technologies, “enhanced” food and beverage, rooftop terrace, reserved stadium seating, a full-service restaurant and bar and an additional non-theater tenant."
Although the ArcLight proposal is almost identical to the AMC one, City staff recommended that the council support the AMC proposal because the company operates two other theaters on the Promenade, Broadway and 7-plex.
And AMC officials have said if they build the new theater, they would close the 1,000-seat Broadway (which they say is not profitable) and remodel the 7-plex, reducing seating capacity, which would limit the net gain of total theater seats in the City.
This would reduce the amount of new traffic coming to the Downtown and prevent the over-saturation of theater seats in Santa Monica.
However, AMC officials told the council that the company, which has a long-term lease on the Broadway theater, could sublet the structure to another theater company.
“Maybe someone with a different concept could find a more profitable operation at that asset,” said AMC executive Christina Sternberg. “I can’t offer you any guarantees that someone won’t step in and try their hand at Broadway 4.”
Mayor Ken Genser said that without this guarantee, he could not support City staff’s recommendation to go into an exclusive negotiation with AMC.
He also noted that ArcLight offered a 10 percent higher lease rate at the City owned parking structure site, although City development officials told the council this was not a major factor because “it’s not a lot of money” anyhow.
“For us to make a decision tonight that cuts out another option for the City that might turn out to be the better option just doesn’t seem wise and prudent given what’s before us right now,” Genser said.
Council members Pam O’Connor, Kevin McKeown and Richard Bloom joined Genser in a 4 to 3 vote to instruct staff to “confirm that this AMC team can indeed deliver on the issue of closing the Broadway cinema” before the City would go into an exclusive negotiation with the company.
Other council members were hesitant to support anything that might delay the process. And City Councilmember Robert Holbrook said he wasn’t concerned that another entity could reopen Broadway, since the theater is considered small by industry standards and difficult to make profitable.
The use of movie theaters to lure visitors Downtown was a key council strategy in the mid-1980s.
In 1987, after three unsolicited proposals to build movie theaters near residential areas, the council passed a law that only allows new theaters Downtown and restricts the total number of seats to 2,700.
The three theaters on the Promenade soon became a reality, helping to shape the future of Downtown.
|
