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Movie Theater Proposal Set for Initial Public Review  

By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

The public will have at least three opportunities in the next two months to review and provide feedback on a proposal to transform a City-owned downtown parking structure into a technologically sophisticated 12-screen movie theater complex with a restaurant and retail space. Meanwhile, a few negotiations need to be hammered out to get the project rolling.

The City Council in September gave the go ahead for municipal staff to negotiate with cinema giant AMC Entertainment Inc. and developer Metropolitan Pacific Capital for lease and development agreements for the structure on Fourth Street off Arizona Avenue.

With the limitation of total theater seats for downtown in mind due to parking and traffic concerns, the council asked for an assurance that AMC had the power to close its Broadway 4 theater. AMC’s promise to do this as well as reduce the seats in its Santa Monica 7 theater also located on the Third Street Promenade were major factors in City staff recommending an AMC proposal over one from ArcLight Cinema Co.

AMC told the City in November that it could close Broadway 4 in a letter that stated it is negotiating with building owner Promenade Gateway LLP to terminate its lease and to preclude the future operation of a theater at the site.

If a negotiation were unsuccessful, AMC promised to shut down its operation at Broadway 4 for a year prior to the new theater’s opening. Due to City law, this would require Promenade Gateway to obtain a new conditional use permit from the City if it wanted another theater. The theory is that City officials would not grant the permit.

An AMC spokesperson on Monday said the company does not comment on discussions with a private landlord. Karen Pappas, the senior real estate manager for Promenade Gateway, said she had “no news to report” when asked about the negotiation. She would not even confirm whether discussions were occurring.

John Warfel, a Metropolitan principal, also declined to discuss the status of talks. But he said “there will not be an issue” when it comes to closing the Broadway 4.

“AMC has certain rights under the lease,” said Warfel, who said he could not get into specifics. “That issue has been resolved.”

The City is negotiating with AMC and Metropolitan for a development agreement and a long-term lease for the property at Fourth and Arizona. Tentative details for the project include an 83,000-square-foot structure, 12-screen theater with 2,197 sets, 2,100 square feet of retail tenant space and an interior restaurant that will be open to the public.

A community float-up session for the project will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday at Ken Edwards Center. Another one will take place before the Planning Commission on April 21. A third presentation will go before the City Council next month.

Information from those sessions, City Economic Development Manager Miriam Mack said, will help to finalize draft lease and development agreements. The project must then go through the environmental review stage before returning to the Planning Commission and City Council for approval. It has not been determined whether a full-blown Environmental Impact Report (EIR) would be needed.

Mack said a development agreement is required because the project would need “slight” variances from the City’s setback restrictions. The structure would only be able to meet the City’s rules perfectly “with great difficulty to the project.”

A development agreement necessitates the project builder offer public benefits. Mack said the theater itself would be the main public benefit.

“The fact that we will get a theater that will help preserve the cinema market for Santa Monica is a benefit in and of itself,” Mack said. “There may be other public benefits that will be explored as the development agreement is negotiated.”

Santa Monica’s theaters are considered out of date because they lack many of the new sound and visual technologies as well as stadium seating that exist in nearby cities’ cinemas. City officials say this is a major factor in the 30 percent decrease in Santa Monica theater attendance in the past decade.

 

"The fact that we will get a theater that will help preserve the cinema market for Santa Monica is a benefit in and of itself,"     Miriam Mack

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